


DARKWORLD

by angwrites2



Category: Deltarune (Video Game), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, Grimdark, Mystery, Post-Deltarune, Violence, badassery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:00:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 32,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26964826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angwrites2/pseuds/angwrites2
Summary: Return to dark where dreamers lie, with creatures evil crawling by.Scale the pit-born shadowed tower, bear witness to a wrathful power.Rid the horror from thine hearts, for he is with you in the dark.
Relationships: Kris & Susie (Deltarune), Kris (Deltarune) & Original Deltarune Character
Comments: 12
Kudos: 14





	1. Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moments after the conclusion of the Fun Gang's righteous quest to save the Dark World from eternal darkness, Ralsei finds himself alone once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic takes place directly after the events of deltarune: Chapter 1, and is Canon Divergent (meaning the canon presented within the story will not align with Chapter 2, whenever that comes out.). It is the result of a story I've had in my mind for the past year and a half or so- it's only recently that I've decided to make it into a fully-fledged fic. Expect updates bi-weekly, or possibly more. It depends on if college decides to be nice to me; you know how it is. As always, constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.
> 
> Please enjoy.

A happy ending.

That’s what they together had achieved. Ralsei watches as the heroes of light advance towards the Fountain of Darkness, where they would inevitably seal its vile apparatus and rescue the world from eternal darkness. Thanks to his and their efforts, everyone would continue to live in harmony, under not a tyrannical regime, but a more merciful and empathetic one. Everything had ended just how it was supposed to end, exactly how it was written in the prophecy, the prophecy he had recited to himself thousands of times over the years of his relatively uneventful life.

He should be happy. He should be rejoicing, with soulful purpose singing in his heart, having ultimately filled his purpose as the dark prince to the Delta Warriors. He had done everything right, just as he had trained himself for.

Why then did he feel so.... Cold?

He wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but it was something akin to a coldness. Something jabbing at his heart, eating away at his thoughts like locusts to a crop. A feeling so full of undeniable dread and hopelessness that it could drive one mad.

“Oh, hey greenie!”

Ralsei jolts, having been snapped out of his inward stupor. He turns to see a short, plump little boy with a head in the shape of a spade, waddling up to him with giddy excitement.

“Looks like the good guys won after all, huh?”

Letting out a cough, he pushes up his rounded glasses.

“Yep. We won alright, haha.” He forces out a fake smile.

“Yeah, it’s pretty schweet. I’m super pumped to be king! I’m gonna give out free dark candy to everybody! And then I’m gonna have a huge party, where we eat a bunch of delicious…”

Lancer’s rambling begins to drown out over his own tumultuous thoughts. He did do everything right, did he? He was a good mentor to them both, especially to Susie. He had done so much study, so much research into what exactly it meant to be a true hero. He had spent years teaching himself how to socialize, how to conduct one’s self, how to seem normal. All those years spent reading, practicing, rehearsing, reading, over and over again, perfecting his mask of cheeriness and optimism.

He had to, there was no other choice. Failure was not an option.

“...and then once we build our Awesome Swimming Pool of Epicness™, we’re gonna… hey toothpaste boy, are you even listening?”

“...What? O-oh, yes, of course. That sounds great, Lancer.”

A look of modest concern begins to emerge on the little boy’s face.

“Is something wrong, greenie? You’re lookin’ kinda long-faced.”

Lancer was naive sure, but he wasn’t stupid; something Ralsei wished he had realized sooner.

“Uh… it’s um, been a long day for me, I guess. This whole adventure has left me exhausted, really.”

He doesn’t buy it, but he doesn’t feel like pushing for an answer.

“Oh, okay then. I guess that means you’re gonna go back to your house, or wherever you live.”

“...Yes.”

Ralsei starts his typical gait back towards the throne room.

“Alright then. Uhh, come back soon though! You’re not gonna wanna miss out on our cool beans usurpation party!”

He looks back, and musters up a lethargic wave.

“Goodbye, Lancer.”

Lancer looks on, a mild expression of concern finding its way onto his face.

\---

The trip back to Castle Town carried with it a harsh undertone of unfulfillment, uneasiness and uncertainty.

Having been socially isolated his entire life, Ralsei wasn’t a stranger to these depressive feelings. Living in a castle all alone was bound to make one quite lonely, no matter what kinds of things there were to do, be it reading books, watering flowers, cooking, or even just lying around doing nothing. Although hard, Ralsei had learnt to make do with the hand he’d been dealt. He held no resentment or bitterness towards his unfortunate circumstances, in fact he was grateful to be given such an opportunity in the form of the prophecy. All he had to do was wait until the time came, and then he would have his chance at happiness.

And when that time came… wow, what a great time it was.

He had finally gotten to walk through the fields he had longed to be with for so long, only being able to see them from his castle’s balcony. He had journeyed through the Great Checkerboard, where strange monuments and devious traps lay waiting to be conquered. He had gazed in awe at the wonder that was the Brickens Forest, with all of its grandiose rose-colored trees and gusty winds. 

Those winds were blowing wistfully among him at that moment, carrying with it droves of crimson leaves. He hung on to his hat to keep it from blowing off, the breeze whisking his scarf and robes eastward. 

Finally, the looming Card Castle. It was there that he and the Heroes of Light had smitten down the land’s cruel King.

Ralsei continued to reflect upon his heroic journey. He had met so many new people along the way, ranging from innocent civilians, to menacing underlings of the King, and everything in between. He found great wonder in seeing so many different kinds of people, all living their own lives, entirely separate from him. Each of those lives equally significant and unique.

His feet trotting upon the black and red marble of the Checkerboard, he thought of his closest friends.

Kris, the courageous human. The prince wasn’t sure where to even start with him. He was the picture perfect hero he had read all about in so many historical and non-historical books: Kind, compassionate, stalwart, and a fierce leader. He commanded him and Susie with competence like he had never known, always making strategically excellent decisions and routing their enemy with incredible precision. That, and he had never ordered a single violent act unto any of their adversaries, even the most hateful ones.

Susie, the valiant monster. Although a bit misled at first, she had grown to earn Ralsei’s respect as a righteous warrior. Despite all the missteps and instinctual acts of rudeness she had needlessly inflicted, she showed in the end that she was willing to correct herself and grow, if it meant protecting the ones that depended on her.

The surrounding blades of grass, various shades of purple and violet, reminded him of her.

She struck him as the type of person who didn’t have it easy, just like him. Life can hurt, especially when there isn’t anyone around caring to listen or consider your feelings. You end up compensating by hardening yourself, teaching oneself to punch back instead of forgiving. All it took was one little spade-shaped prince to give her a change of heart, and transform her into a respectable hero anyone should strive to be like.

All of the incredible times he had, all of the wonderful people he had come to know. All of them forever in the past.

Because a fountain can only be sealed once.

His thoughts (and he himself) ran into a large ornate door, the Deltarune adorning its golden visage. Casting a quick spell, he unlocks the gate and shuffles through the gap in the door, closing and locking it behind him.

Ralsei fixes his gaze upon the miniature town that he had inhabited for so long. In front of him sits an old marble fountain, water spewing out of its openings and into a pool below, the impact of water rippling across. Various bending figures of houses, inns, and more alike dotted the distance, all of them empty and long forgotten. In the midst of this distance lies a lonely, stone-built castle, its features vaguely visible from such a ways away, the original fountain of darkness rising into the starless black-blue sky. The dark fountain pierces the dayless sky with unending persistence, supplying the world and all of the people within the fabric of its reality.

Darkness was the fountain, and the fountain was Darkness.

Ralsei falls to his knees, his purpose fulfilled and his quest complete.

He screams into the void, and the void screams back.


	2. Tomorrow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One day has passed since the heroes had concluded their grand adventure through the whimsical Dark World. They both plan to return.

Hello, Asriel. It’s me, your best friend.”

…

…

…

...

“Not exactly. I’m something much more than that. Or him, to be more specific.”

...

“This world is dead, all thanks to you. Let us bring it into the abyss.”

…

“Very good. Allow me to give you a taste of my power.”

\---

Kris bolts awake, eyes open, facing up towards his bedroom ceiling. His face, although tired, was fresh with an expression of raw terror. Eventually, his brain began to kick in, reminding him where he actually was.

“Goddamn nightmares, “ Kris thought.

He glances to the other side of his room, where his step brother's old computer and nightstand was. He looks at the clock, 8:30 it reads. A thin strip of sunlight cuts into the room through the nearly closed window curtains, the beam illuminating a portion of the room opposite, revealing various amounts of dust particles along the way. The radiant light pricked at Kris’s eyes, practically yelling at him to get out of bed. Thankfully, he did have a reason to get out of bed today.

The human slides himself out of bed, tugging his covers along with him as he (not so gracefully) slams onto the carpet floor. “I’ve had worse landings, “ he thought. Pushing himself up with his hands, he picks himself up and starts straight for the door. Out of his peripheral, something else yanks his attention away from the exit.

An old, rusty, banged up cage, with a bright red glowing soul in it.

Kris thought hard to himself, his scarlet eyes fixed upon the heart-shaped manifestation. Although he hated being controlled like he had been yesterday, he wasn’t sure if he could go without it’s help. Now was not the time to show his new friends who he actually was, much less disappoint them with his lack of charisma and/or social skills. Even if he bared through all that, he would probably have to make actual, important decisions again. Something he knew he clearly wasn’t cut out for, to say the least.

“Alright, you win little guy. Just… don’t be all weird and flirty this time, ok? Sure it worked out fine, yeah, but I’d rather not have to go through all that internal screaming again.”

After fiddling with the lock for a moment, the cage unlocked, the grated opening now ajar. Then suddenly, as if a command were given, the soul shot straight at him, directly into his chest. The human staggers back a bit from the sudden frontal force, clutching the area of impact.

You stand up straight, eyes staring forward, expressionless.

You exit through the bedroom door.

Stepping out into the low-lit hallway, You note the slightly ajar state of your stepmother’s door. You know she’s an early riser, so you expected her to either be out and about, or downstairs in her chair. Of course, the former would be desirable, but either outcome was doable. Walking over to the carpet staircase, you formulate a lie in your head for the latter occasion.

“Kris? Is that you, honey?”

Looks like it’s the latter.

“Hey mom.”

You finish your descent into the downstairs area, waving over at your stepmom as you head for the kitchen fridge.

“Please, do not ‘hey’ me.”

Opening the fridge, you grab some plastic-wrapped leftover pizza slices.

“Sorry.”

Toriel shifts in her chair, her book set down on her lap, reading glasses set firmly on her nose.

“I am surprised to see you up this early. Are you going somewhere?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” You lie, taking a bite out of the cold, slightly soggy pizza. “I’m gonna go walk in the forest for a while.”

“Oh, alright then. Please make sure you bring your cellular phone. You know how worried I get when you go missing for hours at a time.”

“I’m not gonna “go missing”, mom.”

_Besides, if even you did, she wouldn’t be missing much._

“It just gives me peace of mind, that is all. I do not mean to belittle you, you are a young adult after all. It is just in my best interest to care about your well-being.”

_Sure._

“Ok mom.” You reply plainly, opening the door.

Out of the corner of your eye, you spot her mouth opening, as if to say something. She doesn’t.

You walk out into the fresh, crisp autumn air. Surrounding you are some typical looking trees, their leaves in varying hues of orange and yellow. A cloudy, brooding sky hangs just overhead. As you walk, you feel the sounds of pavement and scattered leaves under your shoes.

“My kind of weather”, you think to yourself.

A brisk wind sweeps your hair to the side as you continue your way down to the school, the breeze carrying with it an undertone of gloom. The semi-muted light from the sky seems to compliment your usual mood as you meander your way down the street, taking a left, walking by the Catty residence. You catch a glance of someone inside watching television, some sort of new-age gameshow. Walking further down past the diner and hospital, you take another left further down, watching as the school building comes into view. The brick and white paint stands out amongst the orange of the trees, catching your eye.

You almost wish the walk was longer, in a way.

Coming up to the foot of the school, you happen to notice the absence of a certain scaly friend of yours. You silently curse to yourself, regretting that you didn’t ever specify a time. Or, she didn’t specify a time that is. It could be quite a while until she gets here.

_Or, you could just go in without her._

...Some friend you are.

You walk up the stairs and up to the entrance door, reaching for the handle. It doesn’t budge, as expected. School’s locked on weekends, right. Searching your head for solutions, you come upon one that seems like it could work. You take out your ball of junk that you got from yesterday, grabbing a stray paperclip out of it, breaking it in two and bending the parts into a more usable form. It’s been a while since you last picked a door, but hopefully you remember it well enough for a simple lock.

Ah, just like riding a bike.

You swing the door open, a little more confident. The first thing you notice is the purple-ish looking figure at the end of the hallway, banging and kicking the school’s closet door.

“Raaagh! OPEN you metal piece of shit!”

Yep, that’s her alright.

You walk up to the door, smirking as you watch the dragon whelp relentlessly attack the poor thing with her bare hands. She takes a defeated step back, her heavy breathing painfully evident. She puts a hand around her arm, rubbing the wrist area and wringing her fingers.

“Ugh. Goddammit. Fuckin-”

She turns around to see you, standing with your arms behind your back.

“Whaaa- Oh my GOD! K-Kris?!? How the f-” She stumbles, putting a hand up out of instinct.

She’s wearing a scruffy-looking purple hoodie, partially zipped up to just below her neck, the cloth loosely draping over her like a child’s hand-me-down. Under the hoodie sits a dull grey shirt, probably short sleeved from the looks of it. A similarly rugged set of jeans completes the look, the knee areas partially ripped from wear. She’s also got on a pair of sneakers, if you can even call them that. More like pieces of detached cloth covering her feet.

Under her hood, you also notice the presence of a distinct yellow eye, with the other hiding behind a curtain of hair.

“I used the door. You know what those are, right?” You tease, shit-eating grin and all.

“That’s BS. The door was locked, dude.”

You look at her, then at the broken window housing the leftward wall.

“Did you seriously break in through the window?”

She looks towards the window, an eyebrow raising and a look of mild guilt forming on the back of her smile.

“Uh... yeah. Whatabout it?”

You force out a half-hearted chuckle.

“I guess they don’t call you head-strong Susie for nothing.”

She shifts back into a less defensive stance, reaching her hand up behind her head.

“Hah, you know it. I make my own damn rules.” She gloats, absentmindedly taking off her hood.

As her hood slides off, you immediately notice a different looking head of hair from what you’re typically used to. Instead of a messy, unkempt mob of hair obscuring her eyes and running down to her shoulders, a much cleaner looking swept-back type of hair meets your eyes. Her bangs were pulled back into a half-ponytail, rendering her glaring reptilian eyes clearly visible.

Quickly noticing your silence and wide-eyed expression, she gives you a mean-eyed scowl.

“Yeah, I know ok. I just… I kinda liked being able to see better and all that.” She gesticulates a waving motion near her head with a single hand. “Better vision equals better accuracy when it comes to beating people’s asses.”

“I think you look great, Sue.”

“Yeah, whatever, I… wait, really?”

She scoffs at you, clearly flustered. A lighter shade of purple emerges on the sides of her face.

Really wish I would stop doing that.

“Um… ok? Thanks???” She runs a hand through her hair a few times, along with producing an awkward smile.

After an agonizing period of silence, she (thankfully) changes the subject. “Anyways, uh, I’ve been trying to get this stupid thing open for the past 30 minutes. Since you’re such a _godsend_ at opening doors, why don’t you give it a shot.”

“Gladly. Watch and learn, my door illiterate friend.”

You take a step towards the door, rubbing your hands together in a mock fashion. Susie stands by, arms crossed, probably thinking of some comeback line when you inevitably fail to open it.

In a surprising event even to you, it opens with ease.

“...What…” Susie drops her arms to her sides, completely lost.

“Guess I’m just that good, huh?”

“Whatever, freak. Let’s just go in.”

Just like last time, the blackness intrudes the space outside the door, coating the walls in an unnatural dark, almost like a reverse light. Inside the doorway itself is complete darkness, like in a deep cave or moonless forest. Blinding darkness envelopes you and Susie the same, filling you with a sense of unease.

No, not unease. Something else.

“Damn, I forgot how dark this is. I can’t see anything inside…” She begins to approach the door, hands balled, courage written on her features.

You follow her example, finding within yourself the will to step inside. Once you enter through the doorway, your vision almost entirely cuts off. You can barely see yourself, let alone Susie. The only things guiding you are her heavy footsteps and occasional grunts of discomfort.

“So uh… do we just like, wait here?”

“I guess so, yeah.”

A moment passes.

“...Hey uh, Kris?”

You turn towards the voice. “Yeah?”

“This is gonna sound kinda weird, but...“

Another moment.

“Can I like… hold on to your wrist or something…?”

“Hah, are you chicken?”

“NO!... No. I just… I don’t wanna get separated like last time, ya know? That was pretty inconvenient, just sayin’.”

Eh, that’s a good enough reason. “Sure.”

You feel a scaly hand grab at your hand(hand holding? scandalous), then quickly shift to your wrist, followed by another grunt.

“Make sure you hold on. Might get a bit bumpy.”

“Alright, whatever. Just try not to jerk arou-”

The sentence is cut off by a sudden rumbling beneath you, the ground quaking madly with force. The sound of the rumbling pierces through the air, stabbing at your eardrums. Expecting it didn’t make it any less worse. The grip around your arm tightens.

“Shiiiiit!”

You both fall, panicked screams dissipating into the membrane of oblivion.


	3. TOWN FORSAKEN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The real story begins.

**BEGINNING OF ACT 1**

**TOWN FORSAKEN**

Forgotten Town

Falling.

At least, that’s the last thing you remember doing before blacking out.

The next sense in line for your brain to process is a hard, cold floor laying beneath you, likely old and wooden judging from its groaning creaks under your shifting weight as you stir. You’d liken the feeling to waking up early on a Monday morning, minus the whole warm bed and house bit. Another sense comes to you, this time a nearly equally cold hand loosely clinging onto your upper wrist. Were you able to see within the near-total darkness, you’d likely be looking at your purple compatriot lying beside you.

The silence is deafening.

“Hey! Susie!” You yell-whisper to her.

_No response. Heavy sleeper, looks like. Another thing we have in common._

“Susie!” You whisper with emphasis, adding in a quick elbow nudge.

A low, barely audible groan emanates from beside you, dazed in tone with a slight hint of confusion.

“Ungh… w-what…? God, my head…”

A rustling of clothes and what sounds like heavy armor shifting.

“Susie, it’s me! I think we’re in.”

“Huh? Wait… oh! Kris, that you?” Her voice perks up a bit, having regained her faculties.

“Yeah, it’s me. Good thing your idea worked.”

“Oh yeah, that. Uh, yeah, I guess it did work. Who woulda thought?”

The moist, cold air swirls around you, striking your nerves and sending a slight chill throughout. It smells musty and dank, like rotting oak in a decaying acre of wood.

“Uh... Where the hell are we?” Susie plainly blurts, in her usual cynical tone.

“Don’t know. Definitely not where we landed last time, that’s for sure.”

These were not the strange gray mesas you encountered on your first trip to this place, that much was certain. It felt different, yet somehow familiar, like a place you’ve been to but can’t remember being to. Pushing yourself up off the ground, your eyes finally begin to adjust to the darkness, allowing you to sort of make out your surroundings.

The place you currently find yourself in is a dusty old storage room, littered with miscellaneous items such as barrels, wooden crates, and some rows of open drawers accompanied by various types of strewn about furniture. You also see an array of fancily carved shelves, nearly all of them empty, except for a few which hold rounded bottles. Within the room itself lies two wooden support beams, leading up into rows of thick wooden boards and a fair share of cobwebs. The room itself isn’t incredibly big, but big enough to provide a sense of unease, seeing as the shadows could harbor an unknown third party. It all looks abandoned, like it hasn’t been used, touched, or visited in a very long time. This is the extent of what you can garner with your limited vision.

Another sight quickly captures your attention; namely a pair of brightly glowing yellow eyes, pupilless. Your heart skips a beat, but you then remember who you’re standing next to.

“Uh… do your eyes usually glow like that?”

The eyes turn towards you with an inquisitive squint.

“Huh? Oh yeah, I guess they do. They do that so I can see in the dark, n’ stuff.”

“You can just… do that? Whenever?”

“Uh, yeah. On command, too. Bet you wish you were as cool as me, heh.”

You recall seeing Susie’s eyes glow before, like when she threatened to bite your face off that one time (not too long ago, actually.). Admittedly, it is quite a cool ability to have. Perhaps it’s exclusive to her species of… whatever she is. It’s never come up in your mind for you to consider asking.

“It’d be better if you used those eyes for something useful, like finding a way out of here. Unless you wanna just keep showing off how _cool_ and _edgy_ you are.”

“Alright, jeez. I’m workin’ on it.” The eyes look up and to the left, her head slightly tilting back to complete the “I couldn’t care less about what you just said” idea.

The shadowy figure next to you begins to walk in an aimless direction, the heavy footsteps audible within the otherwise silent room. You follow suit, trusting that she has an idea of where she’s going.

“Why are we in some shitty old cellar?” Her voice denotes a hint of bewilderment. “This isn’t where we came in last time at all…”

Something doesn’t feel right. Like something’s changed, drastically. For better or for worse, you can’t say. It feels as if you came into a completely different world. You could even still be in the quote-unquote “real world”, but there’s no way to tell.

“I was wondering the same thing.”

“Wait, shut up for a sec. I think I see somethin’.”

She roughly grabs your shoulder, partially startling you from the abrupt contact. Her other hand points over to a spot in front of you, signaling a place to look at.

“There, right there. You see that?”

It’s barely visible, but you can see it. A rusty metal hatch, with a thin ray of light streaming through the space inbetween. The slice of light intruding the cellar casts a dull highlight onto the ground it hits, the outside teasing the in.

“Yeah, I think I see it. You think it leads outside?”

“It’s gotta. Lemme see if I can’t…”

She makes her way to the hatch, placing both hands on its corrugated metal surface. Planting her feet firmly below for support, she pushes hard on the hatch, letting out a labored grunt. The metal bends and croaks under the duress.

“Hnngh… Ugh, it’s rusted shut. Come on…” She sucks in air through her bared teeth, putting a hard effort into forcing the hatch open.

_At least try and make yourself useful._

“Do you… need help with that?” You're not the strongest guy you know, but it’d be good to at least offer.

“Nah, I got it. Just gotta…”

She brings an arm back, balling her hand into a tight fist. Then, with one swift motion, the girl smashes open the door, the metal flinging up and back with incredible speed. The loud bang of the impact sends a short echo throughout the cellar, reverberating off the now illuminated wooden interior.

“Hah… alright. That worked, I guess.” She lets out a quick sigh, wringing out her right hand. You can just barely hear her curse under her breath.

Taking initiative, you climb up the stairs and out the hatch into the unknown space beyond.

(By the way, whenever something like this comes up, it means you should listen to the included music. It's entirely optional, but it adds nicely to the atmosphere. It can even sync up to the events within the story!)

**(Somewhere, a song begins to play for exactly 4 minutes and 28 seconds…)**

You’re immediately hit with a gust of cold air as you make your way up the steps, climbing up onto an old cobblestone road, flanked by two faded brick buildings. A fog, thicker than molasses, runs throughout the space and surrounds you. Visibility here isn’t much better than the cellar, despite the presence of a pale light shining down from the sky (an obstructed sky, due to the fog). Light seems to dance and waver through the scattered water particles, rippling waves of gas permeating the air. The fog itself is almost unnatural; impossible in its sheer density.

In short, you can’t see shit.

“Woah…” A voice rings out from behind you, the source of that voice trudging up the creaky steps.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure we came into a different place.”

Turning around to face her, you notice something a bit different about Susie; she’s wearing a completely new outfit. Her original black leather jacket and purple turtleneck had been replaced with a bulky chestplate, fit with multiple layers of shaped metal panels, all with a deep violet hue. The panels run together to create a sort of ornate curved engraving, emanating a feeling of power and grace intertwined; fitting for a warrior such as herself (maybe minus the grace bit). A chainmail under-armor accompanies the main plate, itself a slightly lighter color of purple, and just above it two heavy pauldrons, both black with a golden outline. Her arms sported the same spiked bracelets you distinctly remember, but now her arms were covered by form-fitting black sleeves, each with a window exposing the bicep area. Below her heart-shaped belt was a drooping coat-bottom also fit with layers of violet metal, this time overlapping to form a scale-like pattern, the section of armor overlaying baggy, pink-purple sweatpants. Her heavy-looking black boots have a similar look as well.

She notices you eyeing her up, and seems to come to the same realization.

“Woah… well goddamn! The jacket from before was nice, but this is even cooler!” She takes a moment to inspect her arms, clenching her hands into tightly balled fists, an impressed grin forming on her face.

“Yeah. You really look like a bona fide warrior, and a dangerous one at that.”

“Damn right I do. You yourself don’t look half as bad.”

You look down, and see that your attire has also had some alterations; maybe even upgrades. Your clunky metal armor and black spandex you had before were replaced with a flexible leather chestpiece, making movement within it much easier compared to before. You can feel layers of metal hiding beneath the leather, sort of like a bulletproof vest. There are also some extra straps and belts running across your chest, likely holding all the armor together, as well as adding a bit of flair. Padded metal plates and steel gauntlets accompany your arms, sporting a similar level of balance between protection and breathability. You’ve also got that strange off-pink ascot, but this time it serves as a hooded cape, the ends of it slightly patchy and rugged. Your black leggings and metal boots are pretty much the same as before, maybe with a little more detail etched into the boots.

“Alright, enough fondling ourselves over the new get-up. We still gotta figure out what the hell is going on.”

You find yourself agreeing with that statement. “Same. Stay close to me, I don’t wanna lose you in this fog.”

“Ok. Lead the way.”

With that being said, you both venture your way down the path and through the fog, uncertain of your whereabouts or destination. The thickness of the mist surrounds you, that same feeling of intense uneasiness stalking you throughout the alley. You know Susie is feeling the same way, but she’s doing a good job of hiding it.

After a short trek between the fading brick walls you climbed up into, you suddenly come into a much more open space, the straight stone road beneath you changing into a more circular pattern. The fog also seems to have cleared slightly, allowing you to faintly see the outline of numerous buildings, none of them more than two stories high. It’s almost certainly some sort of village or town, that much is clear. Despite this, there has been little to no sign of any people, or even anything else for that matter. Not even evidence of the place being lived in, you at least expected to see maybe some old carriages, or shop stands, _something_.

The near-complete silence is ended with the approaching sound of running water, as you continue to walk towards the center of the plaza. It’s an old fountain, spewing water as it runs down the marble structure and into the residing pool beneath.

...There aren’t any coins in the fountain.

“...Hey, Kris?”

You glance back at her, still contemplating the nature of your surroundings.

“I uh… I really don’t like this. T-this is kinda startin’ to freak me out. Something is _really_ wrong, dude.”

There is definite truth to that statement. You don’t want to admit it, but you aren’t really sure what to do about any of it. Stuck in entirely unknown territory, lost and confused. Neither of you have ever been here before.

Right?

...

_That fountain…_

Suddenly, an ear-piercing screech rings out from the far distance behind you, echoing off the walls of the village buildings and making you jump out of pure reflex. You instinctively conjure your sword, gripping tightly onto its bronze handle. The screech itself is inhuman, Like a cross between a horror movie monster and a person being tortured to death; it splits your eardrums at its sheer intensity, causing you to grit your teeth. Susie reacts in a similar way, covering her ears and shutting her eyes tight. After what feels like an eternity, the scream begins to fade back into silence.

“What the fuck?!?” Susie blurts out, panic-induced in her movements.

“Come on!” You motion Susie over to follow you as you break into the fog, she quickly catches on, closely running behind you.

You can feel the adrenaline pumping through your veins as you dart forward; no initial plan in mind other than getting the hell out of dodge. Both your mind and heart are now running as fast as you are, trying to process the sudden influx of information. What the hell was that screech? Did it come from something; someone? Was it dangerous? You aren’t willing to take any chances, and neither is your friend. All that matters right now is finding safety, and quick.

After a short deal of sprinting you find yourself running to a large looking building, with a wooden double door and awning reaching over the opening. The windows are all boarded up, excluding one where the boards had been broken open and removed. If you can get yourself and her in, you should be safe.

You look back to Susie, still right behind you. “Quick, through here!” You call back to her as you pull yourself up and through the opening in the boards, just barely squeezing through and rolling onto the wooden floor within. She follows suit, reaching her arm through and squeezing her head in between the boards. It only then occurs to you that she’s unable to fit through, her armor being far too bulky to allow her in cleanly.

“Shit! I can’t…” This then becomes evident to her as well. Try as you might to pull her in, the boards refuse to budge.

“Wait, Kris! Just… l-let go for a sec!” She wants you to let go, apparently? You wonder what her plan is here.

“Stand clear Kris!” She takes a few steps back, attention fully upon the boarded window. Surely she isn’t going to…

Within a few short moments, a flying Susie is sent crashing through the wooden boards, pretty much obliterating the window and sending splinters and wood chips flying in all directions. You begin to contemplate if this is really just an episode of jackass. But hey, at least your friend is safe (if not littered with splinters and small cuts).

“Ergh… h-hey Kris. Ow.” While she looks pretty banged up, you’ve seen her worse.

“You know, you could’ve just smashed the window with your axe and _then_ climbed through.”

“What? Oh yeah, I totally forgot… I was just completely spaced out.”

“Well, you do make your own rules, don’t you?” You give her a raised eyebrow.

“Ya know, I would beat the shit outta you right now if I wasn’t covered in wood and shit.”

“To be fair, I’d probably let you.”

You bend down to help her up, and she reaches a hand out to grab yours. You assist in pulling her up, but you can tell it’s mostly her doing the getting up part.

“Argh, alright. You think we’re safe now?” She looks a bit shell-shocked, and you don’t blame her.

You’d like to think you two are safe, but the chances are likely pretty slim. Best not to let your guard down.

“Probably not. Stay alert, we don’t know enough to make a decision like that.”

“Okay, will do.”

Pondering what you should do next in a situation like this, you take a minute to survey your surroundings. You’re both in the foyer of a spacious lobby-esque space, near the center of the interior lies a wood-carved reception desk, flanked by two sets of carpeted stairs, both with railings (also wood-carved). The decrepit musty walls house various sets of doors, all of them in various states of rot. The only light source nearby is a dimly lit chandelier, candles softly burning with a deep blue flame.

Once again, it all looks like it had been left behind a long time ago; ancient reminders of a once-thriving society.

“I think we should go upstairs. Maybe there’s a way onto the roof, we can get a better view of where we are from there.”

Susie, who had walked around a bit to more closely inspect the premises, shoots a quick glance back at you.

“That’s… actually not a bad idea. Sometimes I forget how good you are at this whole ‘leader’ thing.”

Once more taking initiative, you lead your purple compatriot up and through the winding staircase, the boards underneath creaking below your weight. The stairs lead into a more narrow corridor, with branching hallways housing even more doors, with washed-out paintings and sets of basic furniture dotting halls; a candlelit flame affixed to the side of each door. A single open window sits neatly at the end of the main corridor, tattered curtains fluttering weakly in the gentle breeze.

“You think this place was some sort of hotel?” You make an attempt at small talk to ease the tension.

“Maybe. I dunno.”

As you continue to walk through the main corridor, another sense begins to make itself known. This time, a smell, not like the rotting wood or moldy wallpaper you had grown accustomed to, but another, much harsher and stronger smell; it’s something you don’t think you’ve smelt before, but damn if it isn’t nauseating.

“Urgh! God, what is that?” Susie waves a hand in front of her face, attempting to ward off the awful stench.

In one of the hallways to the left of you, you find your answer.

**(The same song begins to play once again, starting at 4:28 and stopping at 5:20.)**

It’s the corpse of some sort of monster, slumped against the wall, clawed hands lying limp at its sides. The dark-blue scaled creature’s blood had been splattered against the walls, with a massive smear and dent in the wall it lies against. Black blood coagulates and pools at the bottom of its brutalized body; its narrow-snouted jaw sits locked open in a permanent state of shock and fear, pointed teeth glimmering in the pale firelight. The limbs bend in unnatural directions, you can even see bits of bone in some areas.

“Fuck! What the fuck!” Susie’s reaction surprises you as she jumps back, an arm outstretched instinctively to protect her face. Having fully taken in the scene, she brings a hand up to her mouth, probably trying to stop herself from puking. You would’ve probably had a similar reaction to her, that is if you hadn’t already seen pictures of dead bodies on your various trips to the dark web. For once you’re grateful for being so desensitized.

Stepping closer to the body, you can really see just how badly this creature got killed. Not only was its blood painted on every nearby surface, but its jaw had also been completely snapped open, revealing bits of tender pink flesh exposed. Its rough scaly exterior was heavily mutilated with a large manner of deeply set cuts, almost to a ridiculous extent. You’re sure that whatever ended this thing’s life ended it quickly, and quite painfully as well.

You’re snapped out of your investigative endeavor as a loud ‘thump’ hits the ceiling above you.

Shit. It’s still here, isn’t it?

“Susie.”

She snaps her gaze to you, face pale with terror.

“Don’t. Move.”

You reach within your instincts to immobilize your muscles, trying your absolute hardest to remain still. You can hear the light scraping and tapping of claws as the thing above you shifts around on the rooftop above, sending small clusters of dust tumbling down to the ground. Shortly after, you can hear a faint, guttural snarl, muffled but audible through the chipped paint.

The snarling stops for a second, but only a second.

**(The same song begins to play again, starting at 5:20.)**

In one swift motion, the roof comes crashing down, you dive out of the way in just the nick of time to avoid being crushed. You see the creature, it looks like the same kind as the body you saw in the hallway.

What you didn’t expect to see was a bulky humanoid figure, their defining features obscured by a sweeping shadowy robe. The figure was firmly planted on top of the creature, pinning it down with their weight and an arm on its neck. The creature shrieks as the figure brandishes a stout steel blade, extending from the top of their gauntlet’s hand and outward perpendicularly. Grabbing their prey’s snout shut, they thrust the blade directly into the creature’s skull, silencing it for good.

Unlodging their blade from the deceased creature’s orifice, the figure turns its head to look at you both.

“Run!”

No time to think, only to act. You sprint down the hallway and vault out of the open window, landing on the rooftop outside; Susie follows in the same way. As you continue running you gaze across the town’s rooftops, the view now unhindered by the fog, which remains relegated to the streets. An expanse of buildings and houses spans down for miles, the buildings getting taller and more advanced as you look farther; eventually transitioning to sprawling skyscrapers and towers. In the center of all the buildings sits a massive citadel, the herculean structure rising into the sky and into the deep blue clouds. The top of this citadel holds a vantablack beam shooting upwards, the darkness threatening to burn into your retinae, not unlike attempting to stare at the sun.

You look back. They’re gaining on you both, and fast.

“We’ve gotta lose ‘em!”

“How, Kris?!?”

It’s time to weigh your options. You can see that the rooftop is coming to an end, but it’d be impossible to jump down from your current height, unless you wanted to break both your legs. There’s another rooftop that you _might_ be able to jump across to, but it’s far too risky.

_Better think faster, 'cause you’ve come to the end of the roof._

Over the edge of the roof, you can see a long-running canal, flowing with what you can only hope is water. If there’s any way out of this, it’s in there.

“What the hell do we do, Kris?!” Her back is turned away from the edge, eyes fixed on your assailant.

“We’ve gotta jump down to that canal. It’s the only way!”

She looks at you, bewildered. “Are you insane?! It’s too high!”

The robed figure slowly approaches, having transitioned from a dash to a walk. Their blade glints and glimmers in the light of the sky, shining with murderous intent.

“...Fuck, okay. I’ll do it.”

“Alright, grab onto me.”

She clutches your arm in her hand, gripping tightly as if she’d die if she were to let go.

The figure begins to run again, blade outstretched and trailing behind them.

“Now!”

You both fall, the figure watching as you descend into the canal below.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! Looks like the story is finally starting to pick up. Took me quite a bit of effort to get this one done... and a lot of procrastinating... yeah. By the way, let me know if you enjoy the "story-synced music" I've put in. Hopefully you think it's neat (unless you don't, in which case sorry).
> 
> Expect another two weeks for the next chapter, possibly more. It's a bit of an exposition dump chapter.


	4. DOWNFLOW

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kris and Susie descend into the depths of the town. Generally bad things await them.

**DOWNFLOW**

Drainage Tunnels

You seem to be doing a whole lot of falling recently, huh.

Not to say that you’ve gotten used to the feeling, just that you expect it and understand it.

The feeling that whatever happens next is entirely out of your control, and that whatever’s coming next is quickly approaching.

Is it death? Is it survival?

Or is it something entirely different?

_ Time for you to find out. _

A sharp wave of pain shoots throughout you as you plunge back-first into the canal, the downward force is enough to send you well into the water. You can feel your entire body recoil from the impact, desperately attempting to process the rapid influx of stimuli as air empties from your lungs. The feeling sends you into a haze-like stupor, somewhere in-between the bounds of consciousness.

_ You need to swim up. _

You put all of your willpower into doing just that, trashing viciously towards the surface. There’s just barely enough strength within you to make it above the water. You can’t help but cough and hack out the water from your lungs, your body grasping for any sense of respite.

There’s no time for that. You need to make sure Susie’s ok.

“Susie!? Susie!!” You shout out her name, hoping for a response. Half-focusing on treading above the water, you reorient yourself to look around, hoping you see her somewhere nearby.

She surfaces just up ahead of you, in a similar way you yourself did.

“Kris!? Kris, I’m here!”

That knot in your stomach subsides, seeing that she’s ok. You swim your way a little closer to her, just so that you no longer have to yell.

“Are you alright?” It doesn’t hurt to ask.

“Uh, yeah. Mostly. Took the fall kinda hard though… isn’t landing in water 'supposed to not hurt?”

“Well, from a certain height it becomes closer to hitting concrete than actual water. At least at terminal velocity, I think.”

“Terminal wha-?”

Somehow, her reaction doesn’t surprise you.

“Whatever. What matters is that we’re not dead.”

“Yeah. And we got away from whoever that freak was.”

The blade of the stranger still sits clearly in your mind as you drift down the waterway. You couldn’t discern any defining features from them, at least from the few glimpses you were able to take; this was mostly due to the shadowy cloak they had adorned. Something about that blade though… the way it glinted in the pale light of the sky, it’s freshly coated surface dripping with a viscous black substance.

They killed that thing, and they did it without remorse.

Your attention redirects to Susie as she maneuvers herself to take in her surroundings.

“So uh, what the hell do we do now?”

That’s a good question. You’re both floating down some sort of waterway, leading into a large tunnel shortly up ahead, it looks like it leads into a larger tunnel system. The flanking walls are too steep for you to climb, so that clearly isn’t an option. You’ll just have to keep moving forward and see if you can find a way back up.

“I don’t really know yet. We should be safe though, for now.”

Maybe not “safe” in a complete sense, but more just “less vulnerable”. You hope to god there aren’t any water creatures in here with you, that would certainly ruin your day.

Before you know it you’re floating into the interior of the dank, dark tunnel within the waterway. The outside light begins to dissipate as you wander further in, the gentle yet affirmative current toting you and your friend along into deeper darkness. The darkness grows greater still, and you find yourself soon unable to see.

“Susie, I can’t see anymore. Help me out here.”

A pair of glowing yellow eyes shifts to gaze at you.

“Huh? Oh yeah, sure. We’re still in a tunnel, looks like it splits off into two different paths down there. Can’t see much else though, it’s really frickin’ dark.”

“Do you see any way back up?”

“Nope, not even anything to stand on. Hope we find something soon, ‘cuz I’m kinda gettin’ tired swimming.”

You personally aren’t having any issue staying afloat, but it might be a problem for Susie, definitely because of her heavier armor. If you don’t find a place to get off things could turn bad, quick.

Something else begins to grab your attention. It’s subtle, but the current is picking up. You can feel the water pulling you even faster along.

“Woah. Do you feel that, Susie?”

“Feel what?”

Something hits you about the way her voice sounds, as if it came from behind a wall…

Oh crap.

“Dammit, Kris! You’re going down the wrong tunnel!” Seems like she realized what was happening around the same time you did.

You’re trying to swim back against the current, but it’s too strong now. It’s also beginning to incline into a downward slope.

“I… I can’t get back!” You’re trashing your arms as hard as you can against the current, but it’s no use.

“I can’t get into… shit! K-Kris, what do I do?!” You can hear a great deal of splashing on the other side of the wall, you think she’s having a similar problem.

“Susie! Find another way down, I’ll find you!”

That’s all you can get out before the current whisks you away, while all you can hear are the echoes of Susie’s yelling and the rushing of water.

So now you’re skidding down the tunnel along with the rushing water, almost like a water park slide. It’s only getting faster, the rushing water louder. You still can’t see, and it’s throwing your senses into panic mode. This is infinitely worse than falling off that building, since at least then you knew what you were falling into. Here, you don’t. It’s all so damn fast, the bends and curves in the tunnel make you feel like you’re about to puke.

Just when you think you’re going to die, you can see a light at the end of the tunnel. It’s approaching, and fast.

Another sensation of falling, and another splash into water.

...It’s too much.

You’re going to drown.

_ Swim up. _

Arms that aren’t your own push through the water, carrying you to the surface. You can’t feel, you can’t think. You can only act.

You surface into a dark tunnel, similar to the one you were just in. The water’s still deep, but you can see that it leads to solid ground. Swimming forward with your not-arms, your legs begin to hit that ground, as it slopes upwards. The second you get to a spot where you can stand, you collapse exhausted on the ground.

Okay.

You’re fine… This is all… fine.

_ Get up. _

The narrow tunnels ahead are scarcely lit, with only the light of weak blue-fire candles to illuminate the way. Metal pipes of different shapes and sizes run along the sides of the mossy brick walls, many of them rusted brown. A strange chirping sound emanates from somewhere deep within the tunnels, only accompanied by the sound of rushing water. That same water runs through the tunnel, albeit as a miniature stream below you. It smells musty, like decomposing trash and algae.

You take a candle off the wall and begin walking down the dimly lit corridor.

As you make your way down the tunnel to whatever lies ahead, you can’t help but think about this whole situation you found yourself in. Where are you? Why did you and Susie fall into this, instead of the Dark World you knew? What were those black-scaled creatures you saw back at the buildings?

...Who was that person that killed them? Why did they want to kill you two as well?

There are so many questions that haven’t been answered, it clouds your mind. Those questions probably aren’t gonna be answered any time soon, either.

...At least the candle glow is nice. It feels you with a sense of ease, lighting up your emotions just as it lights your way. Somewhere in the dark, you can feel another light presenting itself. You reach out to it.

The power of the calming flame shines within you.

Continuing down this narrow passage brings with it a plethora of interesting sights. You didn’t notice before, but there are tiny little dots of a deep blue luminescence dotted across the curved walls. The chirping sound you noted earlier seems to be coming from them, or at least from within their vicinity. It reminds you of lightning bugs, and how you’d run around trying to catch them in a jar when you were little. They scatter as you move forward, swiftly evading your light. It’s actually quite beautiful in a way, you wish you could stick around for a bit and just watch them dart from side to side, in their own little life-like dance.

Gotta keep moving.

As you enter this next room, there’s another set of tunnels across from you, with some more rushing water running through them. A tunnel above the flow gushes even more water in, making even more noise as it falls into the stream below. You can hear more sources of water nearby, which leads you to believe this is some sort of central area within the tunnels. The rusty pipes and decrepit walls also seem to imply that this all’s been here for a long time, and hasn’t seen any real maintenance for even longer.

Something wet begins to squish beneath your boots. Bending down with the candlelight, you can see a black, coagulating liquid running down from…

...Holy shit.

It’s another one of those shadowy black creatures, also dead. This time the corpse is pinned via a steel pipe that had been snapped from off the adjacent wall, stabbing directly through the thing’s mouth, its jaw forever ajar in an eternal scream. Lifeless limbs and bony claws run down to a completely severed lower torso, innards limply drooping down from within its decomposing orifice. A collection of offal, blood, bile, and piss coalesces directly below, running down and into the rushing water; more of those glowy blue dots buzz around the pile of guts. You can’t even begin to describe the smell.

There’s writing in black blood on the wall.

**“YOU’RE ALL NEXT”**

...This is incredibly fucked.

Like, you thought things were pretty bad already, but this? You’re reaching new levels of “This is so fucked” every minute it seems. And then, almost as if exactly on cue, a pained scream echoes from the tunnel beside you. Sure is great to be you, isn’t it?

...Hang on. You relisten to that same scream in your mind, and it doesn’t sound like a scream that would come from one of those… things.

Oh god, it might be Susie.

Throwing any and all caution to the wind, you sprint down the corridor and through the feet-high water, still holding your only source of light. As you continue to run, the ceiling and surroundings begin to open up, leading into another intersection with various pathways boarded up. You can hear movement in the upcoming area.

This might be suicide, but you have to try.

Rounding the tunnel’s corner, you’re met with a sharp blow square in the middle of your face. The force of the hit sends you straight to the floor, as well as making a slight splash in the water. The candle lands just beside you, miraculously landing upright.

Standing above you is a pair of brightly glowing yellow eyes, shining bright in the dark. A metal blade glints in the pale light.

“Wait, Susie! It’s me!”

“...Kris? Oh shit, Kris!”

Phew, that’s a massive relief. You weren’t sure if Susie could find a way down to wherever you are now. This might be just as fucked as before, but now you can share the fucked-ness with your friend.

“Yeah, it’s me. Ow.” Your nose is bleeding, and you still feel a bit dazed. She can really hit hard when she wants to, huh?

“Hey, take it easy… lemme help ya.”

She extends an arm as a sign of apology, and you take it with as much grace as you can.

“Sorry for decking ya like that, ha. Thought you were one of them.”

“I’ll be fine, ugh.” In all honesty you’re not fine, but you don’t see a point in showing it as of now.

Wait, who is she referring to as “them”?

“Did you run into one of those black teeth guys?”

“Oh yeah, there’s actually a lot of ‘em.”

“How many do you mean by a lot?”

“Uh… It’s possible I may have run into a pack of them.”

What.

“It’s also possible that I may have… royally pissed them off by wounding one?”

Ugh, classic Susie.

“And now they’re hunting the shit out of me. Yeah.”

“Well, I hope you’re happy with that. At least you have me to help if they decide to run by you again.”

She dematerializes her axe, putting her hands being her head all nonchalant-like.

“Hey, don’t sweat it. They’re honestly not that bad. If ya hit ‘em hard enough they’ll just run away.”

Picking your candle back up, you can’t help but notice a sizable gash on the side of Susie’s arm. Slight amounts of monster dust are pouring out of the opening.

“Speaking of ‘not that bad’, that wound you’ve got looks kinda serious.”

She looks down at the wound, then back at you.

“What? Nah, it’s fine. It’s nothing, really.”

Doesn’t she know anything about why open wounds are so dangerous?

“Susie, I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but I’m being serious. You need to get that patched up. It could get infected, and you could be in some serious trouble.”

You can see her visibly roll her eyes, and it’s starting to annoy you.

“Whatever, dude. Didn’t ask for you to be the school nurse. Besides, all I gotta do is just eat a donut or something and I’ll be fine.”

Coming as a surprise to you, she is right about the donut thing. In yesterday’s adventure, you were able to easily heal your wounds just by eating food. It didn’t make any sort of sense in a realistic way, but it didn’t strike you as incredibly strange considering the context (an entire world in your school’s closet).

“Alright, I’m sorry. I’m sure there’s a Dunkin’s around here that we can get you a donut from.”

“Hah, you’ve got a smart mouth for a guy your size. If it weren’t for-”

A scowling groan makes itself apparent from just around the corner, followed by short yet quick splishes. It half-startles you with its volume and suddenness, you weren’t expecting Susie’s “friends” to be back so soon. Speaking of Susie, you can see her beginning to summon her axe.

“Susie, no! We don’t have to fight it!” You relay to her in a hushed whisper.

She looks at you, bewildered. “Why not? It’s two of us, we can take ‘im.”

“Don’t you get it?! The more of them you fight, the more they’ll come back hunting us! Just stay here and be quiet, maybe it’ll go away.”

“Alright fine, have it your way. Just know that the second he sees us, I’m givin’ him a taste of ol’ axey.”

Huddled against the corner of the wall, you take a chance to peek around and get a better look at what you’re dealing with. Just as you expected, it’s another black creature, crawling on all fours across the damp brick floor, digitigrade legs and feral claws clacking against the concrete floor. It’s emitting a low chittering noise, degraded lip flaps vibrating around its sharp-toothed maw. It stands up on its hind legs, raising its head into the air and sweeping left to right, looking for something. It lets out another beastly growl, more sounding like frustration rather than anger.

Just as you blink, a loud crash reverberates from down the corridor, right next to the creature. You can’t make it out entirely, but it looks like a singular fist had blown its way straight through the wooden barrier blocking off a condemned section of the tunnel. It grabs ahold of the creature’s neck, causing them to shriek in terror and claw at the hand, legs flailing wildly. The hand bashes the creature against the boards a number of times, before finally breaking through them and pulling the screaming creature in with it.

The screaming is cut short by the sound of slicing flesh, then silence.

You stand there, frozen against the wall in what you can only describe as “fuck me” fear. You might have stopped breathing at some point.

“Kris.”

“Y-Yeah?”

“What. Was that.”

“It was them.”

She just looks at you, with an expression you haven’t seen on her face before.

“They’re down here too, with us.”

You’re still completely rattled, but it looks like the coast is clear. You walk out and around the corner, moving towards the new opening in the passageway. The boards have been completely smashed through, splinters and rotted bits of wood cover the area. There’s a dead creature sprawled across the floor, black blood pooling at the base of the corpse. It’s twitching.

Oh. And it’s headless too. Isn’t that nice.

“Agh! Fucking-” Susie isn’t too happy about this either.

With your trusty candle still in hand, you steel yourself and continue down the newly opened way, taking care to step over and around the creature’s lifeless body. The blood makes a wet squish sound as you trot over it, leaving prints in the concrete.

“Kris, please don’t tell me you’re going that way.”

You look back at her, she still looks pretty spooked. “We have to. I don’t see another way ahead, unless you do.”

“C-Can’t we just go back the way you came?”

“There aren't any tunnels back there, I checked.”

You didn’t check, but you’d rather save her the pain of having to see that awful scene with the disemboweled body.

“...I hate this.”

“We both do.”

Now you’re walking down an even narrower tunnel, this one looks even older than the ones you’ve previously seen. There are no pipes or alternate branching paths, not even those glow bugs. The darkness in here is absolute; even your candle is having a tough time lighting the way. It’s unnatural, and in a bad way.

“Damn, why is it so dark in here? Even my natural vision isn’t helping much here…”

“I don’t know. Something feels... wrong.”

All you can see is your blue candle-light as you creep through the darkness. The complete blackness surrounding you is really putting you on edge, as if at any second something could leap out of the dark and attack you. Each and every sound you can hear is a hint at potential danger, death even. You can’t help but wonder if Susie is as terrified as you are right now.

You’re shaken out of your intense focus as the ground gives way, causing you to stumble and trip into a pool of waist-high water. As quickly as you can, you reorient yourself on your feet.

Shit, the candle. You dropped it when you stumbled.

Your vision’s completely black. All you can hear are your own movements, the subtle swishes of the water, and the groaning echoes of the space around you. An intense cold swirls about the air, sending a vapid chill down your spine. Hearing really closely, you can barely make out a low-pitched drone, coming from below. Not sure if that’s real or just you going insane.

“Oh no… no no no…” Susie’s beginning to lose it as well.

“Hold on to me. Whatever you do, don’t let go.”

She grabs a hold of your wrist.

“T-This isn’t how I wanna die, Kris.”

“We’re not gonna die. Just keep walking.”

You walk. All you can do is walk, really. Whatever happens next is up to fate.

You keep walking. And walking.

Silence.

You keep walking.

...There are swishes of water coming from places that aren’t you.

You keep walking.

The swishes are getting louder.

You keep walking.

They’re getting louder.

…

There’s a light in the tunnel ahead.

_ Run. _

You’re sprinting through the water as fast as you can, and you hear multiple frenzied roars from behind you. Susie is still holding on to you as you try your hardest to wade to the light in the tunnel. Right behind you is a cacophony of splashing and vocal grunts, thrashing about in rage. Reaching the opening, you scramble up and into the tunnel, more blue candles lighting your way.

You turn the corner into a much more well-lit corridor, with corrugated steel plates running across the floor and metal doors lining the hallway. The olden brick and rusty pipes are once again present, mixing in with the more industrial surroundings of grey-tinted concrete and metal. You’ve entered in through a smashed-through hole in the wall, which leads back into the sewers.

There are also at least 4 creatures chasing after you.

You keep running on through and down the hall and past various strewn about carts and boxes, with the pack of blood-thirsty monsters just behind. Up ahead you can see some sort of makeshift blockade, barred up with welded metal rods and heavy-looking steel crates. There’s a small opening above the blockage that you think you can just barely fit through, and potentially even escape your pursuers.

“Susie! Through there, we can get away!”

There’s a wordless agreement on what should be done. Arriving at the blockade, you nimbly clamber up the crates and rods up and into the opening. Crawling through and out onto the other side, there’s a 4-way intersection, all the hallways bearing crude metal doors, in various states of rust. There’s even a second floor you can see up above, fit with railings and even more doors. What’s an underground complex like this doing down here?

Susie’s following just behind you, but she’s struggling to get in through the tight space, her heavier armor being slightly too big for her to fit.

“Argh, dammit!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you!”

Grabbing a firm hold of Susie’s arm with both your hands, you pull on her as hard as you can, pushing off against the crate underneath with your foot. She’s pushing against the ceiling as well, and it seems to be working, albeit quite slowly. Just a little more…

There’s a sound of ripping flesh, and she screams in pain.

Giving it one final pull, she finally slips out the crevice and crashes with you onto the floor. You can see her reach to grab her leg, groaning through her teeth in agony.

“Shit, what happened?!”

“Arghhh! My fuckin’ leg!”

You look at her leg, and there’s a massive tear near her lower ankle. A claw had dug its way deep into her lower ankle, carving out a chunk of flesh. The wound itself is bleeding dust profusely, pooling up in a small pile on the floor. It looks really bad, and it probably hurts a lot worse. On top of this, the blockade is beginning to collapse under the continued bashing of the flesh-hungry monsters. Staying here like this would be a death sentence.

Susie’s trying to get back up, but she keeps collapsing back onto the floor.

“Susie, you’re not gonna be able to run with that. We have to hide!”

“What? W-Where?!”

Taking a quick look around, there’s a metal door right next to you; hiding in whatever room that is would be your best shot right now.

“Through that door. Come on, take my hand.”

Hosting her up by her hand, you place her arm around your shoulder and stumble your way to the metal door, swinging it open and bursting into the room. Inside is a compact concrete room, with a bed and two lockers on each side of the room; only one of those beds even has a mattress. It’s reminiscent of a prison cell, but somehow with even worse living conditions. You shut the metal door behind you, dropping Susie on the floor to do so. Unfortunately, you can’t see a lock, but it should be fine for now.

You can still hear the banging of the creatures against the blockade. It’s getting louder, and you can hear the sounds of crates falling on the ground.

“Ok, what now?” Susie asks from her spot on the ground.

“Susie, I need you to hide under that bed with the mattress. You need to be as quiet as humanly possible, okay?”

“O-Okay.” She shimmies herself underneath the bed as best she can. Thankfully she’s able to fit, and you wouldn’t be able to see her unless you intentionally looked beneath the bed. Following suit, you shove yourself into the nearby locker and close it; making sure it doesn’t lock. It’s a bit of a tight fit, but you’ll be fine. You’ve been shoved into a locker once already, by Susie actually. The irony isn’t lost on you.

There’s a large crash in the corridor, sounds like the monsters just broke through. You can hear them snarling, the sounds of multiple different pairs of claws clacking on the floor. You’re nearly certain they have a sense of smell, otherwise, they would’ve just run straight past. One pair of clacking claws is approaching your room…

The clacking is overtaken by an incredibly loud boom, almost like a strike of lightning hit just outside your room. Screams and shrieks begin to sound in the corridor, thundering footsteps bounding towards them and silencing them one by one. You can hear the sounds of limbs being sliced, bodies hitting the floor with a wet thump. The creature approaching your door also begins to screech, and those booming footsteps are fast closing in.

Looking through the slits in the locker, you see the last black creature come crashing through the door, its body slamming against the other side of the room and collapsing onto the floor, leaving a fresh smear of black blood coated on the wall. The thing writhes in agony, whimpering and twitching on the newly wet floor. A cloaked figure makes its way into your room, stopping to look down upon the broken creature. The figure bends down, outstretching a metal gauntlet to grab the top of the creature’s head and lifting it up.

“Pathetic.”

The creature gives out a high pitched whine.

“You abhorrent, sick, worthless dog. Life is not a gift you deserve.”

The screams are accompanied by the sound of crunching bone, slamming again and again against the concrete. The figure stands back up, fury wrought in their breath.

“None of you do.”

They walk back and out the door, slamming it behind them.

...Okay. So that just happened.

From where you were hiding, you could get a slightly better glimpse of the cloaked figure. You think you saw… outward metal jaws? A maw much like those creatures, but more of a grim recreation of that, in the form of a helmet. You swear you saw metallic teeth as well. The person themselves had to be at least 7 feet tall, and quite bulky to boot; it’s no wonder they were able to kill those things so easily. 

Regardless of who they are, they certainly aren’t friendly.

“Is it safe to come out yet?” A weakly-spoken voice sounds out from across the room.

“I think so.”

You step out of the locker you were hiding in, taking a short moment to stretch out a bit. The decimated body on the ground shouldn't have surprised you, but it still did. Its head had been flattened into a black paste, bits of bone and teeth scattered around. The chunks of flesh and grey matter are pulsating on the ground, almost like they were unaware they had been separated from their intended place.

“Eugh.” Susie seems to be getting a bit more used to the carnage.

She also sounds… a bit less lively than usual.

“Are… you alright, Susie?”

She stands up in such a way that puts a minimal amount of pressure on her bad leg, leaning against the wall.

“Uh, I dunno. I feel kinda spaced out right now. Feel like I could take a nap.”

Okay, that’s really not good. Her wound was probably bleeding that whole time. You need to find a way to patch her up, and fast.

“Listen, whatever you do, do NOT fall asleep. Even if you really want to.”

“Alright, I guess. My leg doesn’t hurt as bad anymore… I think I can walk.”

“Just take it easy. Can’t have you passing out on me.”

With your friend close in tow, you exit out of the room and back into the main area, peeking through the door first to make sure the coast is clear. Strewn about are a collection of corpses, made up of the pack that was chasing you. They’re all dead, some of them in a more brutal way than others. Something odd that strikes you about one of them is the presence of a large hole, blown directly through the creature's torso. From what you know, that shouldn’t be possible with a regular blade.

Looking about the ground nearby you spot something else of interest. It’s a small, black cylindrical object, with a metal base. It’s rippled black surface had been blown out through the top.

It’s a shotgun shell. That’s what that big blast was.

“Uh, Susie?”

She’s walking down through the corridor, she doesn’t even look at you. You catch back up with her, showing her the shell you found.

“Susie, look at this. That guy had a gun.”

...Why isn’t she responding?

“Hello? ...Susie?”

“Oh, hey. Sorry, I’m really focused right now. I’m walking to that lift over there.”

You didn’t notice this before, but there’s a working elevator at the end of the hallway. Finally, something that can get you back to the surface!

“Just... trying not to fall asleep, like you said.”

“Hang in there, Susie. We’re almost there.”

She walks up to the elevator, pressing the button on the wall to call it down.

“Man, I’m kinda hungry.”   


She turns back to face you.

“You think they got a restaurant or something here?"

The door opens, and there’s something inside it.

It’s them.

“Susie!”

“What?”

She turns around to find herself face to face with the monster hunter.

“Oh shi-”

She’s cut off with a forceful impact directly to her gut. Her body flies back, tumbling and sprawling across the ground next to you. You run to her, propping her head up with your hand. She coughs up a spurt of dust, her face a few shades paler than normal.

“Susie, stay with me!”

“Owwww…”

The hunter begins his advance on you both, extending his arm blade with an intimidating swipe. His metal boots shake the ground beneath you, steel teeth bared in a twisted scowl.

“Another Dymstrogg to kill? This comes as a surprise.”

The hunter’s voice is deep and foreboding, the sound reverberating through a metallic exterior.

“A pleasing surprise, nonetheless.”

“Kris… run…” She mutters this to you, teetering on the edge of consciousness.

You’re not going anywhere.

You stand up, turning to face the hunter. Without having to think, your sword makes itself within your grasp. You’re ready to fight for your friend’s life, even if it puts your own at risk. He’s big, and he’s scary, but you’re determined.

“Hey!”

The hunter stops.

“If you’re intending to hurt my friend, you got another thing comin’.”

You’re ready to fight. He’ll charge you any second now.

Any second.

...

...He’s just standing there.

He’s completely stopped, standing still and staring at you. His gaze seems to be affixed to your sword.

You can feel yourself sweating bullets.

“Come on! Get it over with!” You shout out to the hunter.

“It’s… you.”

He retracts his blade.

“What?”

He drops down to the floor, taking a knee and bending his head down in reverence.

“The Heroes of Light. You’ve returned.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the slight delay on this one. Did a bit of on-the-fly revisioning as I wrote this. Don't worry, you'll get your big exposition dump in the next chapter, I promise.
> 
> I wonder who that monster hunter guy is, anyway?


	5. HUNTED

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kris and Susie encounter a mysterious figure; a Hunter with an iron loyalty and brutal methods. Together they set out to formulate a plan.

**HUNTED**

Derelict Facilities

“The Heroes of Light. You’ve returned.”

Those are the words that exit the Hunter’s gritty, abrasive voice, and the words that enter into your high-strung mind. Those simple words carry so many implications, interpretations, more questions, less answers. Heroes of Light? That’s what you two are, isn’t it? At least from the prophecy your old furry friend retold to you shortly after your initial arrival. That would imply some sort of continuity; that the world you find yourself in is the same as the one you left. But why is none of it the same?

Your mind drifts back to that green hatted furball that accompanied you and Susie on your previous adventure. Ralsei, was it? You haven’t seen him anywhere.

“I know it’s you. That sword you carry… only a powerful warrior with a determined soul could conjure such a device.”

Best just to play along.

“Yeah, we’re the heroes. What of it?”

The Hunter gazes at the ground, seemingly in deep thought.

“I have waited… many years… for your arrival. I did have my doubts about your existence, but those have now been put to rest.”

The way he refers to you depicts you as some sort of deity, a savior. It’s somewhere between unsettling and concerning.

“Hail, revered lightners. I am at your service.”

So he’s on your side, at least for now. Better an ally than an enemy.

“Alright then.” You breathe a hearty sigh of relief as you let go of your sword, letting it dissipate into dust in the air around you. This world should be a lot less dangerous with him protecting you. At least, judging by what you’ve seen him do to those horrific shadowy creatures.

Another thought springs back into mind. Susie. She’s lying motionless on the ground, face pale, blood beginning to pool below her torn open wound. A slight panic sets in as you kneel down to her, desperately checking for a sign of life.

Phew, she’s still breathing. That punch must’ve knocked her out cold. The Hunter saunters over to you, peering down at her unresponsive body.

“My apologies to your friend. I thought she was one of those despicable lowlifes.”

“She’s not dead, at least not yet. Is there any way you can heal her?”

He looks at her, then at you.

“Perhaps. If you wish, I may take her to my abode. There we will be safe.”

“Yeah, that’d be nice.”

Nodding a sign of approval, he bends down, scooping up the purple girl’s body in his arms. Her weight seems to be a non-issue to him as he totes her along to the lift on the far side of the hall, shifting armor and metal jangling around as booming steps echo across the dilapidated concrete. You join in with your own comparatively silent steps, tailing him into the bleakly flickering light. He presses a button, and the lift begins its ascent with an elongated creak.

It’s only now that it occurs to you how large the man standing next to you is. He easily breaks seven feet, his deeply hued cloak concealing a stalwart, bulky frame. His spiked steel gauntlets alone look to weigh a hefty amount, a single hand just as large as your head. His helmet denotes the snout of a reptilian creature, fit with corrugated scales and glinting metal teeth that align in perfectly jagged triangles along each side. The rest is concealed by the hood of the cloak, showing only the steel “mouth” of the helmet. There’s also a pair of similarly metal horns protruding out the back of the hood, sort of how a viking’s helmet would have horns.

A thick, black stream of liquid streams down from his arm and drips onto the floor below. You aren’t sure if that’s from Susie or the monsters he’s brutalized.

The elevator comes to an abrupt stop, shaking you a bit as it jostles around.

“We’re here.”

The sliding metal doors open into another, shorter corridor, with a single push door. The Hunter steps through, and you follow.

It leads out to the top of an indistinct roof, out and into the chilled air of eternal night. Buildings span for miles, leading into a forsaken canvas of decaying land, black leafless trees dot the deep blue horizon. In the other direction is a vast mix of brick and metal, smoke rising into the sky above the dense fog of the streets. The architecture abruptly stops at a massive black wall, past which lie a far more technologically advanced collection of skyscrapers and neon towers. In the dead center of the metropolis sits a dark-as-night citadel, reaching farther into the sky than any other construction. The vile apparatus directs a weaving spire of pure darkness into the heavens, piercing the clouds with unending void.

“Quite the view, isn’t it?”

That’s a massive understatement. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before, a haven of life against the immensity of the surrounding darkness clawing its way in.

“Holy shit…”

“Come now. Best not to linger here, a pack might be on the prowl.”

The Hunter continues along the rooftop, tattered cloak fluttering in the distant breeze. The end of the roof leads to a makeshift wooden bridge, nailed down and connecting the spaces between buildings. Planks creak and bend under the weight of his boots as he walks through and across the gap; it doesn’t exactly strike you as safe.

Having made it across the gap, he looks back to you.

“Don’t look down, if that helps any.” He yells from the other side.

...Is there really no other way across? The drop somehow seems to expand deeper the more you stare down at it.

_Walk._

Disobeying every gut feeling within telling you to _not_ walk across the bridge, you walk across the bridge. You’ve also lost feeling within your legs, somehow. Despite that, you’re making good progress.

...Wait, you’re already across? Huh. That wasn’t nearly as bad as you expected it to be.

“Let us press on, great hero. Our destination is not far.”

There are even more shoddy wooden bridges ahead, intentionally built in a series of networks connecting the rooftops together, allowing for ease of passage. Some roofs are flat, some are pointed with faded shingles, some even have no roof at all. You can’t help but wonder how long these pathways took to make.

“Is this how you get around?”

He glances back at you with an affirmative gesture.

“Yes. Walking the streets invites danger.”

You kind of figured that, just from the small amount of time you spent walking them.

\---

After what feels like hours trekking across unstable planks and olden rooftops, the Hunter turns to face a bridge leading up to a large, empty water tower, rusted and forgotten to time.

“This way.”

He walks across the perilous pathway, and you follow closely behind. After you both make it across and over the railing, he pulls up the bridge and sets it against the rusted metal.

“We’re safe, for now.” He ducks into a ruptured hole in the tank, you yourself tag along.

The interior of the tank is dimly lit, with a single blue candle providing the only source of light throughout the room, minus the natural light streaming in through the entrance. The candle sits on an ornate wooden table, accompanied with two similar looking wooden chairs. A heap of miscellaneous items sits on another table, scraps of metal, wooden boards, a plastic canteen, a toolbox, a pan with a portable gas stove. More homely-esque objects fit the space around you, such as a bed, a cooler, a jug full of water and an odd-smelling bucket. A sharpening stone lies dormant just next to the candle; it’s incredibly weathered.

The Hunter sets Susie down on the bed, being careful so as to not further hurt her. Placing his hand on her chest, an orange glow begins to emanate from his fingertips, flowing energy running down and into her skin. He’s also muttering something beneath his breath, but you can’t tell what. Energy dissipates, and he lifts his hand back up and back to his side.

“She’ll be ok. Give her rest.”

He sits himself down at the table, splaying his arms across in a relaxed position. You decide to follow in kind, also sitting down.

Maybe it’s time to get some answers.

The snout raises up to meet your gaze.

“I see the look in your eye. Something tells me you want some answers.”

“...Yeah. It’d be nice to know what the hell is going on.”

He lets out what you think is a chuckle.

“Of course. But one thing, first.”

What first?

“Tell me if you can. How long has it been since you left us, hero?”

“Well… it was just yesterday, I’m pretty sure.”

He tilts his head, supposedly intrigued.

“Really. Is that true?”

What’s he getting at?

“In any case… allow me to tell you the story of us. Listen closely, because you won’t hear it again.”

\---

**Many years ago, our land was a peaceful and prosperous one.**

**Harmony rang in every corner of the earth, and its people were glad and content.**

**The four kings ruled over that land with a gentle but firm hand, just as any good rulers should.**

**But one day, one of the kings decided his way was better.**

**In a single night, the other three kings disappeared from their thrones, and the KING rose to his tyrannical rule.**

**A new dark fountain was planted in the center of his fortress, a symbol of his absolute dominion.**

**This persisted for a number of years, and the land's people yearned for a savior, a hero, to restore the balance.**

**And that hero came in the form of a trio.**

**A MONSTER.**

**A HUMAN.**

**AND A PRINCE FROM THE DARK.**

**THE DELTA WARRIORS.**

**Together, they traveled to the KING's dark abode and put his iron fist to rest.**

**They sealed the newly wrought fountain, sending away the creeping darkness.**

**And then they vanished, just like that.**

**Never to be seen again.**

**That's where their story ends.**

**But not ours.**

**The KING's intention was never to cover the land in eternal darkness, as the heroes were led to believe.**

**He saw that the dark forces below were growing, and that, if left unattended, could bring upon armageddon.**

**He brought forth another fountain to distribute the darkness across a larger spectrum of space, not to intensify it.**

**And as those heroes sealed his fountain, the flowing darkness was redirected back to the original fountain, in the forgotten Castle Town.**

**The fountain exploded into a twisting spire of pure void and black, a vile blanket of corruption and malice making itself known to all corners of the earth.**

**The very reality of our world was heavily distorted, expanding and contorting the places we once knew into dark reflections of themselves.**

**The humble inns and shops of Castle Town were transmogrified into the sprawling buildings and skyscrapers you see now.**

**And with that blanket of darkness came a new order.**

**The QUEEN, and the Pitborne Legion.**

**She commanded her armies with a relentless fury, establishing her rule over the city with ruthless precision.**

**Their technology and intellect surpassed ours in every way imaginable. Our people were routed.**

**And with the expanding darkness, the lands outside the city became untenable. All peoples migrated to the city.**

**A dark citadel was erected in the midst of the fountain, an apparatus created to suppress and contain the growing night.**

**They named it SINISTRAK.**

**It is in that citadel that she commands her legions, watching over the city and guarding the fountain with her life.**

**It's been 10 years since that fateful day.**

**Our people need a hero.**

\---

Wow. That’s… a lot to take in.

“Wait… it’s been 10 whole years since we left?”

“It has.”

That doesn’t make any sense. You were here just yesterday...

“And… us sealing the fountain is what caused all of this?”

“Yes. It is by your hand that our world was corrupted as such.”

That’s a hit to the gut. Knowing that you’re directly responsible for the pain and misery of so many…

“But you are not the one to blame for this atrocity. It is the dark prince who misled you.”

The dark prince… Ralsei? He knew all along, and he never told you? Or anyone?

He seemed like such a good guy, why would he knowingly do something like that?

“It doesn’t matter now. What’s been done, has been done. We live in the shadow of your actions, the choices you made are ours to bear.”

There’s a certain tone to his voice. Is it… empathy?

“But we can make this right. _You_ can make this right.”

You lean in on the table, looking him in his concealed eye.

“What do I need to do?”

He pauses for a moment, deliberating.

“I must consult with my master. He resides within a highly guarded compound in the outskirts of the city, just beyond the wall. It is a dangerous journey, but it is one we must make. I will stand by you the whole way, and protect you with my life.”

The hunter raises an arm, and with a concise clench of his fist, extends outward a steel arm blade, accented with serrated metal and shimmering in the candlelight. Dried blood sits caked on its surface, painting it with a faded shade of black. He looks down at it, inspecting it with meditated intent.

“There is no greater honor than to serve the lightners. And serve I will, until my days be numbered, and my flesh be put to rest.”

Damn, if this guy isn’t the real deal. Even his words are as sharp as his blade.

“...Right. Where do we go first?”

At the end of that question, you notice the sound of rustling coming from across the room. Susie’s slowly coming back to her senses; her wounds have miraculously vanished. She lethargically sits up, putting a hand to her head and letting out a strained groan.

“...Ugh, my head… fuggin’…”

She looks over to you and the Hunter, both of you sitting down at the table. The man across from you has also turned his attention to her, she looks at him and rubs her eyes.

“...What? ...OH FUCK!!!” Her eyes widen as she realizes who she’s looking at, she springs back against the side of the wall, sporadically summoning her axe and holding it against her. She’s breathing quick and heavily, teeth clenched and mind in fight-or-flight mode. You rush to her side and grab a hold of her shoulder, she doesn’t even notice you, eyes still transfixed on the toothy maw scowling at her.

“H-Hey! Hey, he’s friendly! He’s friendly!”

“Huh?! What?! Kris???” You haven’t seen her panic like this before.

“It’s fine, ok! He’s on our side, he’s not gonna hurt you.”

She looks back at the Hunter, still planted firmly in his chair, unmoving.

“Um! Ok?! ...H-Hi?” She puts up a hand, waving at him.

He gives a single, almost indifferent wave back.

“Hello.”

She looks back at you, speaking in a half-whisper. “Kris, who the f- who is that?” She points at his face, or rather his helmet.

“That’s uh… hm.” You haven’t gotten a name from him yet. You give him a look, expecting him to finish your sentence. He doesn’t say anything.

“I don’t really know, to be honest. But he’s with us, trust me.”

She starts whisper-yelling to you, still unnerved. “Kris, can you tell me why he’s staring at me with a murder face right now? Because that’s a fuckin’ murder face.”

You can’t help but scoff at the silliness inherent to that statement. “It’s his helmet, Susie. It’s supposed to look scary.”

“Huh? ...Oh. That’s uh… Ok.”

She hops off the bed with a bit of a stumble, stopping to wring out her arms and legs.

“Damn, how long was I out? I feel really stiff…”

She puts her hands on her back, stretching it out and making a satisfying *crack* as she realigns her spine.

“Uff, jeez. Kinda sore as well… Uh, where the hell are we?”

“I think this is where this guy lives, or at least it seems like it. Right?” You look to Hunter for confirmation.

“I have many homes. A sedentary lifestyle in this place is not a safe one.”

Susie walks up to the Hunter, now having stood up from his table. She looks him up and down, seemingly admiring… something.

“...Huh. You’re a real asskicker, aren’t ya? I can tell. What with that badass lookin’ helmet and all.”

“Ass… kicker? Is that an insult?”

She seems a bit taken aback by his response, both figuratively and literally. “What? N-No, I mean… nevermind. I’m just trying to say that you’re a real rude dude, and that’s just what we need right now.”

“You think I’m rude too? What makes you say this? I don’t believe I’ve ever intended to offend you, unless…”

She visibly rolls her eyes in contempt. “Oh my god. Kris, help me out here please.”

You almost want to keep watching them bounce off of each other, but that’s probably not the best use of time right now.

“It doesn’t matter. We need to get back to the task at hand. Hunter?”

He turns to you, giving his full attention. Susie looks as well, albeit a bit miffed.

“You said we needed to find your master. How can we get to where he is?”

A brief pause as he sifts through his mind, scrounging for an answer.

“As I said, he resides in a compound at the edge of the city, just past the wall. We’d need to find a way to pass the blockade if we hope to reach him.”

“And how do we do that?”

“My memory is foggy, but I do recall the existence of a secret transportation network deep beneath the ground; they used it to transfer valuable resources between the town and the city. There’s an old mining facility just to the north, I believe we can enter the system through there.”

“And you think we can get into the city from there?”

“Precisely. That is, if the system is still in operation. I haven’t walked those tunnels since-”

He cuts himself off for whatever reason, bringing his gaze to the wall.

“...Those times are behind me.”

The pensive silence is interjected by an inquisitive Susie. “Wait, you’re saying there’s a city somewhere? Does that mean they have food?”

“Yes, Susie. I heard they have donuts too.”

“Really? In that case, count me the hell in.” She seems uncharacteristically enthusiastic about this. But then again, food and Susie go together like pancakes and syrup. You can’t remember a time when Susie _wasn’t_ hungry.

“Then, let us set off. Any more time spent here is wasted.” He sets off, moving forward and out through the hole in the metal, sweeping cloak tailing close behind. You and your newly motivated friend follow in kind.

“Wait, you’re joking about that donut thing, aren’t you?”

Stepping back out and into the chilly evening air, you notice the presence of rolling grey clouds as they bound across the sky, traveling in a single expansive cluster. The clouds have long since overtaken the sky above your location, and you can see brief flashes and crackles within the mass of condensed fluff. A single drop of water comes down and hits the top of your head; a prelude to an impending storm. Not like a downpour would bother you anyway, you’re still soaking wet from your recent run-in with the flooded sewers.

The power of the brewing storm shines within you.

The Hunter walks around the curved railing of the tower, coming to a thick metal wire attached to the side of the tank with a metal clip. He flicks the wire with his finger, making a *twang* and causing it to vibrate along its length. The wire itself reaches down to somewhere in the far distance, heading in a direction towards the center of the city. He picks up a metal rod that was resting against the side of the tank, he turns to you with it in his hand, offering it over.

“This line ends in a place not too far from the facility. Use this rod as I do, and be strong. It’s a long drop from here.” You take the rod from him, somewhat unsure of its use. It’s got a carved out groove in the middle.

He turns back to the wire and holds the rod above it, grabbing the other end with his other arm. With the rod set firmly across the wire, he steps over and off the railing, sailing down the line and into the distance.

“Woah! I’ve always wanted to do one of these!” Susie rushes past you, picking up a rod and setting herself up as he did. She turns her head back to you with a look somewhere between glee and smugness.

“See ya at the bottom Kris. Unless you’re chicken, that is.”

She speeds off down the tower, her yells of excitement slowly fading out amongst the foggy distance.

...Ok. You weren’t ever expecting to do something this radical in your life, especially with your pronounced fear of heights. Once again, there’s no other option.

_Be strong._

Your heart begins to race as arms that aren’t yours place the rod up and around the wire, legs beginning to step up and off the railing. All you can do now is close your eyes, feeling the speeding rush of wind and air flowing past you. You’ve lost feeling in your arms at this point, your body dangling in the air like a ragdoll.

Feeling floods back into your senses as you find yourself stopped against a wooden wall, your legs have cushioned the blow against you, again without your input. Opening your eyes again, you’ve gone through a window into the room of an old house, fit with worn classical furniture and peeling blue wallpaper. Susie and Hunter are standing close by.

“Huh, you stuck the landing better than I imagined. Color me impressed.” Crossed arms and a smug grin accompany her statement.

“Yeah, I guess I did.” Is it possible to sleep-zipline at all? Only because that’s what it felt like to you, doing what you just did.

Hunter walks across the creaking floorboards and over back to the vacant opening in the wall. “This way. The mines aren’t far.” He pulls himself up and through, landing on the dry dirt below.

The impact of the ground below you sends a shock through your legs as you drop down from the window, it’s not enough to hurt but enough to rattle you a bit. In front and around you stand the sprawling visages of towering wooden structures and ribbed metal sheets, coated in blue by the natural anti-light of the sky. Scaffolding and wooden archways branch off from the main architectures; the building pour of rainfall cascading off the shining roofs and onto the barren earth. The overcast weather begets a moody lighting, making it hard to see past a single flickering light bulb fit under the house you’ve exited. Farther in the distance you can make out a system of taller wooden towers, connected with wire and toting unmoving steel carts, running back to an unseen facility; only noticeable by the presence of towering steel smokestacks. Carts made of a similar material lie scattered across from you, derailed from rotting timber tracks.

“Mines aren’t far as in… literally right here?” Susie inquires.

There’s no reply, but you can faintly hear him speaking beneath his breath.

“...wasn’t like this…...doesn’t make sense…”

“Uh… hey, big guy. You know where we are, right?” She probably heard more of whatever he said.

“...This is the mining facility. It has to be.”

“Whaddaya mean ‘it has to be’?”

His only response is to press onwards.

“Ok then. Another strong silent type, I’m fine with that.” She seems dismissive.

“Let’s just stay with him, for now. Unless you’ve got a better plan.”

It probably isn’t a good sign that the person with a clear history in this place is confused by… something.

Following Hunter down the narrow trackway, you can feel the rain beginning to really pick up, alongside rising gusts of wind; cloth tarps draped over the empty carts beside you flap wildly in the breeze. The wooden archways overhead aren’t doing much to help shelter from the downpour, the streams of water dripping down from them only serving to drench you even further. Susie isn’t doing much better either, she’s already had to slick her hair back to keep it out of her eyes. She’s even summoned her axe, just to hold it over her head as a makeshift umbrella. You wish you could do the same with your weapon.

“How are you holding up, Suz?”

“Me?” She glares at you, with a look of ‘I really wish I weren’t here right now’. “I’m having the time of my life. Can’t you tell?” Sarcasm drips from her voice like the rain drips from the slanted shingles above.

“Oh, I didn’t know. I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself as much as I am.”

“Ugh. Yeah.”

Distant thunder.

“By the way, when did we get on nickname basis?”

“Huh?”

“You called me Suz, Kris. Nobody does that.”

“Well, I do now. Do you hate it?”

“I mean… I don’t _hate_ it, I guess. You can call me whatever, as long as it’s not stupid.”

“You got an idea for a better nickname?”

You can see brief flashes of light in the sky, simmering among the clouds.

“...This is gonna sound kinda dumb.”

“I’m listening.”

She’s thinking hard about something.

“I dunno. I’ve uh… I’ve never really been happy with the name I was given. I mean, Susie? Really? That’s so lame.”

“I don’t think it’s lame. It’s kinda nice, actually.”

“Pfft. You don’t have to humor me, Kris.”

“Seriously. It’s not lame.”

She gives you a look, half confused and half flattered.

“...Anyways, I was thinking of something… cool. Something that really says _me_.”

“And what would that be?”

“Oh, I dunno… I’ll think about it.”

Hm. What would be a good name for her?

You and your thoughts bump into the arm of Hunter, who had stopped abruptly to look at something.

“What is it?”

“There.”

He points to a black-scaled creature, a Dymstrogg, bent down on the ground and gnawing on the flesh of an unidentifiable carcass. Blood drips from its mouth as it gnashes away at the bone and flesh of the deceased being. It seems like it's enjoying itself, intently focused on the task at hand.

“I will handle this _insect_.”

Hunter makes no attempt to sneak up behind the gorging quadrupedal, unsheathing his arm blade as he stomps over. He grabs a firm hold of the creature, who had only just noticed him the moment he came close. Any semblance of a scream is immediately silenced with a blade thrust straight through the skull, killing it instantly. The body slumps lifelessly to the ground, clumps of flesh still stuffed in its maw. The Hunter gazes down at the corpse, fists clenched and blade wet.

Susie steps over, looking down at the body. “Wow. You uh… you really did him in, huh?”

He stands there, drilling a hole through the corpse with his gaze alone.

“I can hear them. Can feel their... _rancid_ energy. It permeates the air like a _putrid_ disease.”

Screeches, from somewhere in the not so far distance. Multiple of them at once.

“We must move. The entrance is just up ahead.”

Sure enough, an entrance to the desolate facility is just up ahead, a partially opened sliding metal door serves as your destination. It’s not too far from where you are now, just across a muddied field with old cargo containers and upturned carts. Piles of junk and other miscellaneous items such as barrels and boards lie scattered around the premises, power lines stand firm placed along the sides of another steel-shingled building. Large puddles are beginning to form in the dirt, the rain battering ruthlessly against an already weak ground. The puddles splash and ripple in response to your onward approach.

The Hunter suddenly stops in his tracks, waiting, listening.

“...Quick, with me.”

He ducks behind a nearby overturned cart, you and Susie join in not too soon after. Peeking over the side of the cart, you can see what he knew; another deadly group of Dymstroggs climbing along the top of the building you had just walked past, they drop on the ground as a squad. One of them bends down to inspect the victim of Hunter’s execution, it lets out a low, guttural cry. It sets out into the field, the others close behind.

“Shit, what’s going on? Is it more of them? How do they know we’re here…?” Susie hides inside the space of the cart, she’s understandably worried.

“They hate me.” There’s an interesting tone to the words he just said, almost… hateful. Enraged. Disgusted?

The apparent leader of the pack crawls along the ground towards your spot, overgrown claws and bare feet splatting against the soil. It’s got its snout to the ground, possibly following the scent you all had left behind. It stops just short of the cart, standing up on its two hinds as it gives an aggressive growl, with bared teeth and sharpened claws to accompany it.

Hunter takes a long, bulky looking object from within his cloak; an old looking shotgun with a long barrel and black wooden stock. Holding the gun in one hand, he plucks a shell from somewhere around his waist and slots it into the receptacle, racking the gun by pulling back on the stock with a hefty *chk chk*.

“But I hate them more.”

He jumps out and over the cart, running over to the creature and tackling it to the ground, pinning it with his knees. The creature reaches out at him and screams, a deafening blast of lead and fire bursts out of the gun. The thing’s head splits open and apart, bits of pink flesh scattering among the dirt, a thick black mist sent shooting outwards into the open air. Another Dymstrogg leaps towards him, only for them to be caught mid-leap in his grasp. He plunges his unsheathed blade deep through their neck, throwing the retching body to the ground. A third one approaches, this time from the side. It doesn’t immediately bound towards him, something keeping them (or perhaps, convincing them) that this isn’t a fight they’ll survive. They only opt to growl and seethe at the Hunter, slowly backing away as he approaches.

A clap of thunder, a crack of lightning.

The Hunter dashes at the monster, grabbing them before they could think to run away. He sets them on the ground, making them kneel as he grabs the top of its jaw, furthermore shifting his other hand to the bottom. He begins pulling each side open, causing the bones to crack with the sheer force of his might; The creature gives a weak attempt at something resembling a scream. With a final forceful yank, he forces the jaw from its socket, separating the skull in two and leaving the top end of its head dangling down, only held up by ripped flesh. He lets go, the now lifeless body falling to the ground with a wet splat.

“So… much... more.”

Susie runs over to him, grabbing him by the shoulder.

“Christ… Look, I-I know you’re getting a big murder boner right now, but we need to move!”

Just on cue, another pack of vicious creatures comes into view, much more of them this time... They’re crawling over the roof in droves.

“Fuckin’ A, there’s more of em’?!”

“I’ll get you to the entrance. We must hurry.”

You don’t need him to tell you twice. You’re already booking it towards the sliding doors, Susie and Hunter also making distance. There’s what you could only describe as a small army closing in on your group, a stumbling collection of thrashing claws and gnashing teeth. The ground beneath you isn’t making running away any easier either, you really have to focus in order to not slip and fall.

Finally, you and the other two make it through and inside the opening, just barely shimmying through the gap in the door. You can see the oncoming mass of scale and bone advancing through the rain and the muck, a cacophony of screeching and heavy steps audible from within the interior.

Hunter isn’t trying to get in, though.

“What are you doing?! Get in here!!”

He looks back at the oncoming horde.

“Heroes, please understand; you must run. You must look for a way down, and into the tunnels. I will make my way back to you in time.”

“What? Why?!”

“This door, it won’t stop them.”

He slams the door shut, sealing you and him off from each other.

“But I will.”

...Wow. Is he really able to take on that many at once? Seems like suicide, at least to you. Despite this, you have a sneaking feeling you haven’t seen his full power yet. You’re not sure if you’d even want to.

“Kris, you heard the man. We gotta go.”

She takes your arm, and you both run down through the corridor and deeper into the derelict facilities.

\---

Eventually, you come to a more open space, a vast central area built out of rusted green copper supports and fading cracked concrete. On the far side of the room is a series of dusty old conveyor belts and alloy smelters, sitting alongside drooping mechanical arms and vacant steel bins. There’s a number of railways running into the building through powered gates on the far wall, some of them still holding unmoving minecarts. It’s all some sort of automated system to transport and process materials, metals presumably. A large gash in the ceiling above lets a pocket of pouring rain in, the water slowly pooling into a puddle.

“This stuff looks pretty old. Wonder what they were making...” Susie walks over to one of the mechanized arms, fondling it around for a bit.

“I don’t know. Whatever it was, something stopped them.”

Walking a bit further down past some rusty pipes and a dangling hook and chain, you come to the end of the area; at which there’s a long, downward shaft blocked off by a powered bar gate. Looking down the shaft through the bars, the sides are mostly rock and stone, with a long winding cable and pulley stretching down into the bottomless pit.

“Hey, Susie. Come look at this.”

She’s currently self-occupied with trying to ring her hair out, but she comes over regardless.

“I think this is our stop.”

“Oh, yeah. That’ll do it.”

There’s a call button on the side of the gate.

“Honestly, I’m surprised we found it that easily. I half-expected it to be past a pit of spikes and lava.”

You press the button.

...Nothing happens.

“...Um.”

“What?”

“I think it needs power, Susie.”

“You gotta be f-”

She stomps over to the button, desperately spamming it as hard as she can. Eventually, she gives up, throwing her arms up with a defeated sigh.

“You… Y-You know what? I shouldn’t have said anything. I shouldn’t have. It’s like this world frickin’ _knows_ what to do to piss me off.”

She starts kicking the metal gate in a fit of rage, letting off steam in the form of several unsavory curse words.

“Hey, take it easy there…”

“NO!! I’M NOT GONNA TAKE IT FUCKIN’ EASY!”

Uh oh. The few times you’ve seen her genuinely angry, it’s usually ended in someone getting the shit beat out of them.

“WE’RE STUCK IN GOD KNOWS WHERE, RUNNING FROM THESE GODDAMN TIGER-TOOTHED FREAKS... I ALMOST DIED LIKE 4 TIMES TODAY! AND YOU’RE TELLING _ME_ TO TAKE IT EASY?!?” She grabs the collar of your leather chestpiece, absolutely fuming in rage. The pupils have diminished from her eyes, leaving only a gaze of pure unadulterated anger.

“Please… stop…”

She raises up a fist. You’re fine with this, as long as she gets it out of her system.

...But something stops her. Her expression gradually shifts to anguish, looking directly into your crimson eye. She lets go of you, you both fall to the ground. She’s got her hands on her head now, you can hear her shaky, stuttered breathing.

“I can-… I can’t…”

It sounds like she’s on the brink of sobbing, teeth clenched to hold it in. You hate watching her like this, you want to help her, but you aren’t sure you can.

_Give it a try._

“...Hey.”

You ignore any sense of self-preservation to place a hand on her shoulder.

“Look at me.”

It takes a moment, but she looks at you through a bushel of messy hair. Her pupils are back, and you can see a shiny moisture glazed on top of it.

“I know this is a really bad situation, and it’s completely valid for you to feel the way you do right now.”

Another wavering breath.

“But now is not the time to give up. You need to stay strong; if not for me then for yourself. You’re so much stronger than you know.”

She responds with a half-hearted sniffle.

“Fuck man… you’re killing me here.”

“I know, I know. That’s all I wanted to say, I guess.”

She gives you a hand, and together you stand back up. It’s very subtle, but you notice a single tear drop to the ground.

“Alright, ok… s-sorry about that. I don’t know why that happens sometimes.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. You’re supposed to want to beat the shit out of your friends every once in a while.”

“Pfft, yeah. I guess ya wouldn’t be a real friend if I _didn’t_ want to do that sometimes.”

She looks back at the barred gate.

“Right, So uh… What are we supposed to be doing again?”

Not a bad question, for sure. Presumably, where there’s something that needs power, there’s a way to power it. The real question is where to look…

“Hey Kris, there’s another way over here we haven’t checked yet.”

She points to a nearby metal door, locked from the outside with a slotted steel bar. A marking above the doorway reads: “ADVANCED PROCESSING/CRYSTALLINE GENERATOR”.

“Crystalline Generator? That’s gotta be it, Susie. Come on, let’s see if we can’t get it up and working again.”

Walking over to the door itself, you can’t help but notice a strange oddity concerning the edges of the door. A strange, viscous substance is dripping from through the cracks, accompanied by tiny encroaching black veins; tendrils even. Susie doesn’t seem to notice; she removes the bar and opens the door anyway. As it opens, the same black substance clings to the edges of the door, breaking off into several strings of oozing black. The other side of the door is heavily covered in the stuff.

“Eugh, what is this shit?” She steps back from the door, visibly grossed out.

“I don’t know. It’s not gonna stop me, though.”

You cut through the black goop with your sword, stepping in through the door.

The entirety of the interior of this next room is heavily coated in the vile shadowy filth, seeming to grow in intensity from a point somewhere on the other side. Assembly lines and advanced machinery lie coated in ropes of taint, all of it dumped on from the dripping ceiling. Entire blobs of the substance droop down from above, threatening to fall down at any moment; looking closer you can make out slight movements in the lobules. The ground beneath you squelches and spurts with each step, strings of goop sticking to your already dirty boots as you walk.

“Ok, uh… do you mind if I stay here Kris? I really don't feel like doing this.”

Eh, she's been through enough.

“Sure. Go ahead and close the door, I’ll knock once I’m done.”

“You sure? ...Alright man. Good luck. You’re really gonna need it.”

She shuts the door, and you’re left by yourself in this infested room.

Doing your best to sneak along the squishy ground, you can begin to make out an interesting looking structure against the wall of the area, illuminated by a dimly flickering light dangling from the ceiling. It’s defined by a large ringed shape, with a receptacle in the middle. A panel of various buttons, knobs, and levers sit at the base of this machine, many of them coated over by the goop. Looking closer at the receptacle, it’s fitted to hold something small, about the size of a soda can, but shaped in the form of a 6 sided prism.

A 6 sided prism… a crystal?

You walk back to the assembly machines, tearing apart the goop to look inside one of them. Sure enough, there’s a small black crystal dimly glowing in the machine, alongside a number of other empty slots. You grab it and slide it into your side pocket.

Turning back to the generator, you notice a small, spider-like creature crawling down from the side of the rings. It jumps down onto the panel, sticking the landing with 6 jagged legs; stabbing down into the muck like bent toothpicks. The body of the creature is like a black disk, coated in the same substance dripping from the ceiling. You can feel it looking at you with nonexistent eyes.

“Woah, hey little guy… I don’t mean to-”

The creature suddenly bounds towards you, making a high-pitched shrill as it zips through the air, aiming right for your face. You manage to just barely swat it out of it’s jump, it falls with a wet splat against the floor. Taking the opportunity you’ve made, you stab it on the ground, thrusting through the overturned body. The legs twitch and spasm as it tries to upright itself, but the wound is far too much to survive.

“Damn it… I gotta get out of here.”

You make your way back over to the ring machine, quickly sliding the crystal into its place. It clicks in perfectly. The machine hums to life on its own, the rings beginning to turn and rotate along the crystal’s axis. Arcs of pure energy streak out from the center, striking the sides of the rings as the lights around you come back to life.

A loud *splat* hits the floor behind you.

You turn around, and it’s a bulky humanoid figure, coated in goop and black stringy tentacles. It reaches out a disfigured arm to pick itself up off the ground, labored raspy breathing originates from somewhere within a layer of taint and thick, black metal armor. Metal plates and slime shift and intermingle as the horror brings itself to a lopsided stance, brandishing a massive tendril sprouting out of where its arm should be. There’s a spider creature latched onto its head, partially embedded a helmet oddly reminiscent of a chess piece, you forget the name. Several more spider things sit attached to various other parts of the exterior, some of them still crawling around.

You dart behind the nearest assembler, peeking around to see the gurgling beast stomping towards the whirring ring machine. It shrieks, slamming the base’s panel with its tendril arm.

“LLLL-OOOOUUDDD…!”

The voice is muffled, half-broken, straining to speak behind layers of filth.

It’s distracted, which means a chance to escape. You sneak along the ground, crouching behind whatever cover you can as you inch your way back to the exit.

Still looking back to the humanoid, you somehow manage to trip on an exposed root of contaminant, slamming onto the ground with a loud splat.

The creature twists its head to your location, following with the rest of its body. It lets out a sickening cough, hacking out black goop from an exposed skinless mouth.

“IIII… hhhheeeeaaarrr…”

It begins to limp in your direction, groaning as the tendril arm slides along the mucky ground. The creature’s stomps shake the equipment of the machines around you as it advances, heavy chainmail shifts and thick goop drops in chunks from the body. Thinking quickly, you take a loose rod from one of the machines and chuck it over him and at the wall, it hits with a rattling clang. Miraculously, the shambling monster takes the bait, quickly stomping over the opposite side of the room.

Making sure to not trip this time, you quickly stealth your way back to the door, giving it a few knocks. It opens up a smidge, with a yellow eye peering through the opening.

“Oh, hey dude. Did you find it?”

“Susie, o-open the door!” You say to her in a whisper yell.

“Alright, jeez.”

You stumble back through the door, immediately slamming it behind you and sliding the bar back into place. Once you’ve made certain that it’s locked, you run over to the gated elevator and smash the call button; the button lights up this time.

“Dude, what’s going on? What was in there?”

“There was… something. _Someone_. I don’t know.”

“What? W-What do you mean _someone_?”

“I don’t know! They weren’t friendly, that’s for damn sure.”

The pulleys in the shaft begin to spin as the mechanism shakes and groans; the commotion is obnoxiously loud, likely resulting from years of disuse. An infuriated roar erupts from within the locked room as the trapped creature slams into the metal door, putting a considerable dent in it.

“What the hell?!”

The elevator isn’t rising fast enough for you to escape in time. The door is already beginning to break from its hinges, the bar beginning to split in two from the onslaught of blunt force.

“Shit, that’s what I was afraid of. Get ready, Susie.”

You pull out your bronze hero sword, standing firm with your back against the gate. Susie brings out her weapon as well, slinging her axe over her shoulder in preparation.

“Alright, no more running. Bring it on you sonuvabitch.”

The monster bursts through the metal door, sending it flying off the hinges and skidding across the ground. A terrible roar explodes from the creature’s mouth and echoes off the metal walls of the facility, the monstrosity reeling back in rage and fury.

It begins its attack by stomping directly towards you, winding back and releasing a wild haymaker with its tendril arm. You manage to duck under it, the mass swooshes just over your head as the momentum of the swing forces the monster off-balance. You slice the creature with your sword, carving out a decent chunk of petrified goop. Susie retaliates as well, lodging her axe deep into the shoulder of the staggered being. The creature screams, the disfigured arm punching Susie away with enough force to throw her back; the axe remains lodged in place. It swivels around back towards you, swinging its tendril around just with the weight of its body alone; you back away to avoid the flurry of attacks. With the rush of savage swings having ended, you take an opening to stab them right in the chest, the blade plunging deep into the goop. You try to remove your sword from their body, but the consistency of the substance is keeping it in. The monster grabs you with their mutant arm, slithering tendrils wrapping around you and squeezing the life from your veins. It lifts you up to head height, bringing you face to face with the soulless stare of the beast.

“LET EM’ GO!”

Susie charges forward, only to get kicked back by the monster’s metal boot. It sends her sailing backward, tumbling across the ground and settling a decent ways away. It redirects its attention back to you.

“JOOOOIIINNNN MMEEEE…”

The beast reaches up to its head and slowly rips its head back, revealing a writhing mess of black tendrils, extruding from an exposed throat. The shadowy snakes dance around, slowly reaching out to your head and latching on, tugging at your face with increasing force. You try to struggle, but nothing works; your head feels like it’s going to detach from its socket.

What a way to go, huh? Getting face-eaten by some goop monster. Not the worst way to die, but not the best.

A deafening blast rings out, and the monster drops you to the floor.

You crawl-stumble away, looking back to see the Hunter firing his shotgun at the beast. Each shot blasts a huge chunk off the monster’s body, causing it to reel at the impact of the blasts.

“PAAIINN... PAAAAIIIINNNN!!”

The Hunter racks his gun once more, switching from a two-handed hold to one-handed as he points the barrel at the head of the beast.

“HHAAAATTTEE!”

The beast charges forward, shielding its head with its tendril arm. The blast blows a chunk off the arm, but it’s not enough to stop them. They slam directly into the hunter with full force, shooting him back and slamming him against the wall, denting a few rusty pipes in the process. He clutches his chest and groans, presumably in great pain. The beast rips Susie’s lodged axe from their shoulder, holding it in their hand as they charge for the man to deal the final blow. However the Hunter quickly regains composure, rolling out of the way at the last second; the beast strikes open a fissure in the pipes, sending scalding gas directly into their face. The monster clutches their face in agony, wildly flailing the tendril around as it roars in pain. Hunter sees and grabs a nearby hook and chain, stabbing it into the dazed creature’s neck and wrapping it around several times. The beast attempts to unlodge the hook, but it’s already been embedded in the hardened goop. Hunter walks over to the controls for the crane from which the hook hangs, forcefully pushing a lever into the upwards position. The crane begins to ascend, tugging the monster along with it; the monster claws at the chain around its neck as it wildly kicks the air beneath it. Their body reaches a towering height, and the Hunter briefly switches the lever down, causing the hook to fall and stop abruptly, snapping the beast’s neck and silencing its pained screeches.

It’s over. The beast, the monster, whatever it was. It’s dead now.

Hunter walks over to you, under and past the hanging body of the dripping beast. He extends a hand down to you, you take it with pride.

Susie’s already picked herself up, hurriedly running over to you two.

“Wow! You just… You… H-Holy shit!”

She looks back to the hanging corpse, nearly failing to contain her excitement.

“I cannot believe you did that! That was fuckin’ awesome!”

“Did you… hah… find a way down?”

You see a noticeable impact in Hunter’s armor, past the purple cloak and leather trench coat. He’s clutching the area with his hand, a faint orange glow seeping into the wound.

“Huh? Oh, uh, yeah. It’s just over there, actually.”

The mine’s lift just arrived, standing ready at the opened gate.

“Let us continue, then.”

He walks over and into the lift, hand still clutched at his side. Water and black blood drip from his drenched cloak onto the ground below. Susie stands next to you, speechless.

“Wow. That guy… he’s something else.”

“He’s only a man, Susie.”

“...Yeah. That’s what makes him even more badass.”

You both make your way into the awaiting lift, you hit the button and descend into the depths below.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another wonderful chapter for your eyes. This one's a bit longer than I anticipated, but it should be evident in the quality; I wanted this chapter to be the best one yet. See it as a Christmas gift, a way to start the new year right. Expect the next chapter, well... next year. Haha.
> 
> I almost feel bad for that goop monster guy. Seems like he's got a story behind him...


	6. Mini Chapter #1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunter's hidden identity begins to raise a bit of suspicion from Susie. A small altercation ensues.

That man is something else.

There’s an awkward silence permeating the air, piercing through you like a blade through the gut. The creaking squeals of the wires and gears lowering you down into the abyss certainly aren’t helping, either. You can’t help but think back to the fight you just barely survived, and how the man standing next to you made such little work of that towering behemoth of retching mass and crawling arachnids. Your heart’s still beating hard, you can feel it threatening to break out of your chest, despite the battle having (somewhat) long since past.

The Hunter. That’s what you’ve been calling him so far. You don’t know who he is, or where he fits in with all of… this. Reflecting back on the tale he told you, and the way he seems to know at great length the history of this world, it seems to suggest more about him than you can effectively grasp right now.

If there’s one thing you can garner from him so far, it’s that he, well… “feels strongly” about the creatures you’ve run into thus far. And that’s putting it lightly.

“Hey, Kris.

Susie’s leaning casually against the corner of the lift.

“What?”  
  


“Can we, um…” She looks at the unmoving monolith of menace and metal, stationed there in front of her. Both hands lie clenched at his sides, slowly rising and falling with each scowling breath.

“Can you come over here for a sec? It’s important.”

You walk over to her, half-intrigued.

“What is it?”

Her tone shifts to a secretive semi-whisper, attempting to conceal her words from the silent, brooding Hunter.

“Look, I’ve been thinking about this a bit lately. I know that guy’s a real killer and all, but I’ve only just realized…”

You can tell where this is going.

“Why the hell are we trusting him, Kris?”

“It’s because we have to, Susie. He’s the only thing between us and a shallow grave. Unless you think you can take on a horde of Dymstroggs by yourself.”

“Dammit, Kris! It’s not about that! First of all, we have _no_ idea who this guy is; he hasn’t even given us a name for all we know. Second, we don’t know that _he_ knows where we’re going, he could be leading us to our friggin' deaths!"

“He's the one keeping us from dying! You don-”

“Ok, shut up. Look at him.”

She grabs a firm hold of your head, forcing you to look at the man.

“Be honest with me, Kris. Does this guy look trustworthy to you?”

Well… yeah, she has a point.

“...No.”

“And you’re telling me that you don’t care?”

“...Yes?”

“I swear to- you’re an idiot, Kris.”

Tell me something I don’t know. Ha ha.

“Hey. Big guy.”

She turns to Hunter, still facing away and staring at the rising rock wall.

“You got a name? ‘Cause that would be really useful right about now. Ya know, since that’s what normal people do, tell other people their names.”

Nothing from him, no acknowledgment.

“Listen. I know you’re not deaf, which means you’re purposefully ignoring me. You should also know that quiet people piss me off. So if you don’t-”

*shnk*

Susie’s eyes widen, made speechless as Hunter turns to glare at her, his arm blade unsheathed from the mechanism built into his gauntlet. He slowly approaches towards where she stands, metal boots stomping on the metal panels below. Susie doesn’t back off, but you can tell from both her expression and the tension in her fists that she’s scared shitless. Hunter stops just in front of her, effortlessly towering over the already tall monster girl.

“Who I am, is not of any relevance to the matter at hand.”

She gulps, looks down at his blood-soaked blade.

“I work to serve the lightners, by any means necessary. That is the extent of what you need to know.”

He trudges back to his spot, resuming the highly entertaining act of staring blankly at the wall.

Susie’s trembling, ever so slightly. Her breathing is about as shaky as her movements, she grabs onto your shoulder, points back at him.

“He’s hiding something.” She sputters out.

Out of nowhere, a loud screeching noise fills your ears, accompanied by flashing sparks spouting out of grinding gears, located on the sides of the lift. Something’s caused it to become stuck, rusted metal grating against steel rebar. The sudden stop in motion briefly throws you off balance, the entire room quaking along with you. A single hanging lamplight sways around, revoking any reliable visibility.

“Shit! No, don’t tell me, come on!”

“Susie?”

“I swear to god, this happens in _every_ horror scenario _ever_ . We’re all in this spooky elevator, and it just fails for _no_ reason and we come crashing down! Dammit, I _knew_ this was gonna happen!”

The Hunter snaps back into reality, looking towards the source of the ear-piercing scraping. He dashes over to the source, reaching out and bashing against the steel a few times with his fist. The noise stops, and the lift continues down as normal.

“The metal was bent. I fixed it.”

“...Really? Uh, okay. That’s a relief.”

“There’s a lesson for you, Susie. Sometimes you really _can_ punch your problems away.”

“You’re starting to look like a problem yourself, Kris.”

“Hey. Just trying to give some useful life advice, and all that.”

“...I’m beginning to think I should follow it.”

The lift comes to a gradual stop, the barred gate slides open allowing access to a narrow looking tunnel, fit with wooden support structures and a slew of working accessories, scattered around on various metal outcrops built into the rock and stone. The way is lit by faintly glowing light bulbs, the soft blue rays of light shining through the darkness.

“This is our stop.”

He turns around to address you and Susie. “There aren’t any threatening lifeforms down here, as far as I can recall. All we have to do is make our way to the transit system, and catch a ride into the city. I will inform you more as we go.”

The monster girl seems relieved. “Finally, about time we got a break. I was starting to thi-"

A massive force slams into the top of the lift, creating a massive dent in the perforated metal. The momentum of the smash thrusts the elevator further down, the gears screaming and straining to keep it from tumbling down. Viscous globs of mucus and coagulated muck drip down through the holes in the metal, dropping onto both you and the floor with sickening splats. A strained choking sound vibrates from above you as the mass shifts around; it slithers over to the opening between the roof and rock, reaching in with flailing appendages and tiny squirming limbs protruding from its body. The undead creature peers in with what you can only assume is a head, but the concealed skull loosely droops down with nothing to support it; only accompanied by a single jangling chain.

“GEEEEENN…RALLLLL…!!!”

The slithering hulk slings an oversized tendril aimlessly around the vicinity, but Hunter wastes no time in attacking it. He swiftly dodges the mutated limb and thrusts his blade headfirst into the beast, piercing through the arachnid embedded into the helmet. The creature’s movements slow, but don’t completely cease.

“Human! Hit the lift button!”

“What? Why?!”

“DO IT!”

You run over to the side of the beast, careful to avoid the flailing tendril as you press the button located on the panel. The gears begin to turn again, and the elevator bears down on the beast, slowly crushing it between the two immovable objects. The sound is somewhere between a can being crushed and a pumpkin being smashed into bits.

The beast’s pained groans fade out, replaced only by the occasional shudder.

“...Thaaaannnk… Gennnrrr…”

He pushes the blade to its hilt, completely embedding inside the beast's cranial cavity.

"Don't thank me. You chose this fate."

"Wwweee... alllll... d-diiddd..."

The creature’s head and limbs gruesomely snap off from their sockets, and the elevator careens down the shaft and into the unknown abyss.

\---

...darkness.

Can’t see.

...Fuck, it’s really painful.

Everything hurts.

Wait.

You hear… something?

“......my god…”

Who is…

“...can’t believe…………...you’ll be ok….”

Not a voice you recognize.

...

You’re fading back.

“I will bring you home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So halfway through writing the next chapter I realized it's probably gonna be a lot longer than I intended. Therefore, I've decided to put out a "Mini Chapter" that was originally the intro to the next one. This way you don't have to wait as long, and I can spend more time making sure it's good.
> 
> What do you think will happen next? Please let me know by leaving a comment, I read all of them. Perhaps the closest guess will get something special...


	7. WHAT LIES BENEATH

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang finds themselves in a strange new place. However, they find that one of them is missing. They set out to find them again.

**REFLECTIONS**  
Caves of Dym’ur

Still dark.

It’s still dark, but your eyes are open now. At least, you think they are.

The pain creeps its way back into your body, waking alongside you. You can pinpoint the source now; it’s somewhere on your head. Everything else hurts like hell. Can’t move.

A sound of rustling metal and shifting bars, from somewhere close beside you. Steel plates crashing around, being tossed off onto the ground nearby. You can’t see what it is.

A small, blue flame blazes into life, conjured from the palm of a familiar face (er, helmet?). The flame dances and wavers into the air, slowly growing to give light to the otherwise pitch-black area.

“...Help…” You reach out to him.

“Human!”

He hops over the scattered debris and over to your location, hauling bulky bars and plates off of your body, pulling you out of the wreckage. He carries you aside and lays you down on the rocky ground beneath you, in a surprisingly gentle fashion.

“Are you ok?”

That’s a rhetorical question more than anything. You can’t even feel half of your body; your vision twirls and spins around as you try to move, to do anything. The dizziness is nauseating, splitting pain drilling into your skull.

“Don’t try to move, you’ll worsen the bleeding. Hold still.”

A faint orange glow descends unto your forehead, begetting a sudden feeling of warmth and comfort, almost like sitting in a hot tub. You can feel your mind ceasing to spin as the pain gradually slinks away, the capability to move gradually returning to your arms and legs. The glow subsists, and you reach up to where the pain had been. There’s blood, but no opening.

That feeling of warmth, you’ve felt that before.

“That should suffice, for now.”

You sit yourself up, meeting face to face with Hunter, kneeling down to your level. Somehow, he seems less intimidating like this.

“...How did you do that?”

“A simple healing spell. It attunes to and channels raw energy into the soul, vastly accelerating the healing process. You should thank my master for that, he is the one who taught it to me.”

That makes more sense. It’s no wonder he was able to survive the encounter with the goop monstrosity, he was using it on himself the whole time.

The goop monster… it was speaking to him, and him to it.

“That monster you killed. It was talking to you. Called you… general. Why?”

He turns his head aside, opting to stare at the wall. His breathing hitches, but only for a moment.

“This is a serious question, Hunter. Was that thing… a person at some point?”

The man stands back up from his kneel, facing away into the darkness.

“Was he?”

He looks down at the ground.

“In another time, we may have been what one could consider…”

“Friends.”

“We were close. He looked up to me, in fact. Followed me wherever I’d go.”

“And the one time I deliberately asked him to not follow, he refused.”

“Together we arrived here, and alone I left. That beast is what became of him.”

He pauses, something manages to escape him. Was it a sniffle?

“...His agonizing screams are a phantom, haunting my every waking dream.”

“But an end has finally come to his nightmare. I hope he finds rest, and perhaps more beyond the crimson veil.”

The arachnids took him over, turned him into that… thing.

“...I’m sorry.”

The blue flame wizzes just past your face, shooting into the palm of Hunter’s outstretched hand. He's still facing away.

“There is nothing to be sorry about. Let us move forward with this.”

He presses on into the dark caves ahead, and you follow.

Or, you would follow if it didn’t feel like you were missing something.

“Wait, wait. Where’s Susie?”

Hunter turns back, burning flame still in hand.

“Susie…? That is the monster woman, correct?”

“Yeah. Come on, she might still be in the wreck.”

You and Hunter return back to the broken elevator, hoping to find your purple-scaled powerhouse. The lift itself is beyond any hope of repair; the entire structure had completely collapsed in on itself, sparks of electricity fizzling out from a broken bulb. You dig through the dislodged rocks and metal, cleaving through dispersed chunks of rotten flesh, looking for any sign of her. There’s nothing there.

However, while closely inspecting beneath a cove of debris, you find something. A purple strand of hair, hidden beneath a pile of rubble that had been noticeably moved.

“Shit. Hunter, come look at this. This is hers.”

He grunts in approval. “Maybe she set off on her own. I know she doesn’t trust me.”

“No, that’s not it. It’s not like her to do something like that…”

“Are you implying she was taken?”

...Was she?

The thought is chilling, to say the least.

“God, I hope not. You said there weren’t any guys down here.”

“I was referring to the systems we were intending to enter. I have no knowledge of the areas this deep.”

Not good. Really, really not good.

“O-Ok, let’s just… let’s go. Maybe we’ll find her.”

“Agreed. Stay close to me.”

The vagrant blue flame brings light to the walls of the empty chambers of rock before you, shimmering across the surface with a water-like quality. Rays and shimmers of light flicker and dance across the oddly smooth surfaces beside, with walking shadows waxing and waning along the inorganic carapace. A pair of footsteps, one your own and one not, echo far ahead into the blinding darkness, unaccompanied by extraneous sound. However, something bars the expected anxiety of a situation like this, seeing the stalwart, heavy figure walking alongside you.

This place seems more natural than the rust and metal you were accustomed to. There’s no sign of any man-made presence anywhere, just the spanning slabs of earth.

Eventually, you come to a more wide-open area with dimly glowing flora and small puddles, the rock below transitioning to a more pliable soil. Small patches of purple grass dot the scene, all encompassed within the blue light of Hunter’s flame. There’s an impressive variety of plants here, some of them housing miniature clusters of buzzing glow bugs, a few fly over to the flame, encircling it in curiosity. It’s a nice change of pace, seeing an environment that isn’t either inextricably dangerous or wants to kill you. You stop to look at your reflection in one of the puddles. It’s still you, thankfully.

You also happen to notice a small bunch of lightly luminescent mushrooms. Come to think of it, you haven’t eaten in a while, and just thinking about it is making you hungry. Better yet, you’ll assist in continuing the cycle of life, just as it was intended.

...This could be a bad idea. Eh, to hell with it.

You uproot a fistful of the stuff, shove it in your mouth. The initial taste is a bit bland, but a bitter juice releases onto your taste buds as you bite into the skin. You find the taste comparable to coffee beans, or some other similar tasting derivative.

“...Human.”

“Mmmph?” You turn to look at him, face still partially stuffed.

“I regret to inform you, but those are fatally poisonous.”

...Goddammit.

You do the best you can to hack out the half-chewed mush, using water from a nearby puddle to scrape off any remnants. Either way, you’re probably already fucked. So much for the cycle of life…

“Heh…”

...Hm? Hunter’s… chuckling to himself.

“Wha- Is this funny to you?!”

“I lied.”

Oh.

“Well, I actually don’t know if those are poisonous. They might be, they might not. I cannot say.”

Someone’s got a sick sense of humor.

“Either way, please refrain from consuming random foliage. No matter how much you… seem to enjoy it.”

Ok, so you may have a problem. A very small, not at all an obsession problem. You just… appreciate the art of survivalism. A little bit.

You pick yourself back up, doing the best you can to try and not look like a complete psycho, Hunter looks eager to get back on track. He and you continue through and past the plants and scattered puddles, they begin to taper as you walk farther away. Not much farther down, you come to a dead-end in the wall.

“Shoot. Where do we go now?”

Hunter looks at the wall intently, surveying something near the corner connecting the wall and the floor. You look at the same place he does; nothing immediately stands out to you.

“...What’s so interesting down there?”

“Look closely. See how the grass cuts off?”

Indeed, the grass near the wall unnaturally cuts off, a small-leaved plant partially clipping halfway in. Hunter reaches his hand out, placing it on the rock, his hand landing in a way that doesn’t match the uneven surface in front of your eyes. You can even hear the faint sound of rushing water coming from the other side.

“This wall is fake. Come, give me a hand.”

Not like you can be of much help in that department, but it’s a nice gesture. You position yourself to the side of him, pushing against the false wall with all your might. Suddenly, your hands begin to slowly sink into and through the wall, catching you by surprise as an unseen force pushes you through and onto the other side. You pop out through the wall, stumbling onto the grassy ground.

Before you is a vast expanse of towering black trunks, topped with triangular clusters of deep navy leaves; visible rays of a faint blue light beam through the open spaces and cast down onto the leaf-covered soil. The trees reach far into the space above, the tops only barely visible in the limited blacklight, the base of the trunks encrusted in a dimly glowing blue moss. All of the trees have this oddly uniform presence to them, like they’ve all grown parallel to each other. Waving neon tallgrass sways in a gusty wind, the wind picking up discarded leaves as it swirls around in the cool breeze. Close nearby you spot a flowing cascade of misty-white water, a constant stream of the stuff pouring down from somewhere above and crashing into the rushing rapids below; a vapid smoke-like gas rising from the surface of the water as it bubbles and froths around in the mix.

“What the hell…?” The question abruptly blurts out of you, almost without thought.

“This is… unexpected.”

“Uh… We’re still underground, right?”

Hunter looks back at the wall you’ve entered through, the wall had been replaced by a shimmering white visage; the illusion wavers and scintillates, showcasing a sort of false depth as you look back in, almost like looking into a repeating mirror. Placing your hand on the wall causes it to reverberate to your touch, as a stone dropped in a pool of water would.

“Maybe. To see an environment like this, all the way down here…”

He glances up to the beaming rays of light, breaking in through swaying branches.

“It reminds me of a time long since past.”

You approach the brewing creek, taking a moment to crouch down and inspect it more closely. The vapor rising up from the water is most likely steam- you can feel the intense heat even from where you’re standing. The hot and cold airs visibly twist and intertwine within the gaseous clouds, producing the aforementioned light breeze. You were considering using the water to rinse off all the black muck from your boots, but that doesn’t seem as good an idea anymore.

“I think we should follow this river. Maybe it leads somewhere?”

Hunter nods his head in brief approval. “Most likely, yes. Perhaps it’ll bring us closer to reuniting with the monster woman.”

That’s right. Gotta find Susie.

\---

The stream stretches a fair way down, but thankfully the trek isn’t too bad, minus the occasional strewn about stones and felled tree trunks. Tiny glowing specks of shining light weave around in the air above you, seemingly without purpose; each step through the unkempt grass and leaves making that all too satisfying crunch.

It’s been a while since you’ve had some time to yourself, or at least it feels like it’s been a while. The relative serenity of the forest… it reminds you of talking long walks through your hometown’s forest, with…

Your brother.

You miss him.

“Is something the matter?”

Hunter walks beside you, asking the oddly personal question.

“No, no. I’m fine. Just tired.”

“Nobody’s _just tired_.”

Damn. Someone who doesn’t fall for that trick.

“It’s nothing, I just- walking like this reminds me of someone I’m really close with. My brother, actually.”

“Ah. You must miss him, then?”

“Yeah.”

You know it’s selfish to want him to come back, seeing as he has his own life and all. But ever since he left, it feels like… like a part of you is absent. Without him, you feel incomplete.

You aren’t sure if he feels the same way.

“The feeling isn’t alien to me, human. I had someone like that.”

He stops for a moment, looking at his reflection in the broiling brook. He balls his fists.

“...Had, or have?” You can’t help but notice the oddly deliberate choice of words there.

He doesn’t say anything back.

Within the awkward silence, you pick up a far-off snapping sound from somewhere in the canopy above. A wayward branch plummets down from the sky, landing on the ground with a soft thud. You look to the source of the object, something is rustling around in the leaves. A sudden feeling of being watched envelops you.

“Listen, I hate to break the moment, but we should keep moving. You can do your whole brooding schtick later.”

“...Fine.”

\---

Picking up the pace, you finally come to a luscious marsh, residing at the end of the creek. Steam continues to rise from the half-submerged grass, creating a thick fog that permeates the space throughout. The rays of light falling from the treetops scatter upon impact with the gas, bouncing and refracting off each individual particle in a mesmerizing display of glimmering sparks. In the neighboring distance sits the silhouette of a small-ish house, connected to the edge of the water by a rickety wooden pier. There are some other houses off in the distance that you can barely make out.

Approaching closer to the pier house, it looks different from the other buildings you’ve seen back on the surface. These aren’t nearly as old, or decrepit.

“You think anyone still lives in these?”

“Maybe. I’m not sure.”

It’s probably not the best idea to invade other people’s property, but you feel like doing it anyway.

“Only one way to find out, right?”

“...If you insist, human.”

You reach out to try the door, and it surprisingly opens without much effort. Inside the house is about what you expected; some basic sets of furniture, cabinets, drawers, a table, an empty coat rack. The house is only a single room, with a small lamp hanging overhead serving to illuminate the space. Inside the lamp are the same specks of bright blue you saw in the forest, only now confined within the glass chamber. An ornate twin-sized bed sits affixed to the wall in the corner, sheets made neatly upon the mattress. The place generally seems fairly well kept, at least by your standards (which, if you know your own room any, aren’t incredibly high).

The lamp’s light redirects your attention to a leatherbound book, sitting plainly on the table. A finely cut bit of black rock lies just next to the book, presumably a sort of writing utensil.

Well, you’ve already invaded someone’s house, might as well invade their thoughts too. You flip to a random page in the book, stopping somewhere near the middle.

\---

5 - 3.27

_There have been reports of some happenings over at another one of our villages, and from what I hear it isn’t good. Some unknown group had forcefully taken control over the vicinity, killing anything that isn’t them on sight. I was told they were bringing in these gargantuan metal beasts, using them to harvest our precious gemstones. Their technology vastly outpaces ours, we’d never be able to beat them back._

_Life has already been pretty bad for us since the great change, but now we can’t even have this? Why us?_

\---

“What are you doing?” Hunter snaps at you, causing you to fumble and nearly drop the book.

“I’m, uh… reading this… thing I found.”

“And how is this conducive to our search?”

“...We might find some clues? I dunno.”

He doesn’t seem persuaded in the least.

“Alright, but don’t take too long. Time is not a resource we can afford to waste.”

...Anyways, where were you? Oh yeah, invading other people’s privacy. You flip to another random page, this one a bit farther into the book.

\---

8 - 7.16

_Resources have become increasingly scarce since the arrival of the Pitborne. All the outposts we once relied on for trade have been overtaken by their cruel methods. Not only that, but if they happen to stumble upon us, we’d be dead. Thankfully the chief found a way to keep them out, at least for the time being. I heard his magic is quite something to behold. Can’t help but wonder who his mentor was..._

_Anyhow, we’ve established a new fishing outpost just above the capital. The output doesn’t hope to compare to the old bayou, but it’s the best we’ve got as of now. Guess it ain’t a huge problem, what with the dwindling population and all._

_I should be thankful for our longer lifespans. Haven’t seen any children in years._

\---

The Pitborne. You’ve heard that name before, in the story Hunter told you. They don’t seem like the welcoming type.

You’ve only noticed now, but Hunter’s looking over your shoulder, reading along with you.

“Is this someone’s logbook?”

Logbook? Diary? About the same thing, right?

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Go to the most recent entry.”

You do just that. This next entry isn’t too far from the one you just read, located nearer to the end of the book.

\---

10 - 6.24

_Something incredible happened today._

_I was just minding my own business, carving out a new rod, reckoned it was nigh time for a new one. Then, I heard a terrible crash echo from somewhere near the side of the fall. I went to investigate the source of the sound, apparently there’s a hidden entrance into a tunnel system we hadn’t found out about yet. My guess is that it connects back to the surface. No doubt they’ve tried to get in through there._

_I did some exploring, and I came upon a peculiar sight. An elevator had crashed down from a shaft above, it was all smashed and bent up like a crushed tin can, a real grizzly sight if you ask me. There were three people I could identify; a strange-looking ‘hu-man’ (as I believe they’re called), something I couldn’t tell what it was, and a girl._

_And when I mean a girl, I mean a ‘one of us’ girl. She had this real ancient piece of armor on, and a freaky sort of hairstyle (never seen anything like it), but I knew it was true._

_I pulled her out of the wreckage, took her back to my place. Unfortunately for me, however, she managed to wake up and attack me, nearly killing me might I add. I’d be a sure goner if it weren’t for chief showing up outta nowhere like he always does. He sealed her up in this big magical box of his, I don’t know how he does it. A real foul mouth that one is too, said some words I’ve never even heard before._

_Anyway, I asked him about her, and he said it’s definitely true. I thanked him for his troubles, and he left. My guess is that he went to the old fort, probably to convene with his advisors or something._

_I wish you could see us now, Var’ya. It’s about time our people bounced back._

\---

This is huge. You weren’t at all expecting to find actually useful information here. Judging by the description, the girl they found is Susie, guaranteed. Something else about a chief taking her back to an ‘old fort’. Where is that?

“I see I may have doubted you. These people took her from us.”

“Yeah, apparently they did. Why though?”

Why would they take her? The passage felt like it was implying that she was really important, to them at least.

“It doesn’t matter. We know where she is, and now we can find her.”

Something tells you getting to her is gonna be the hard part. You don’t even know-

...Hang on. There’s a voice coming from outside. It’s faint, but you can hear it.

“Vergi! Hey! Where are ya, girl?”

It’s getting closer.

“Come on out, Vergi! It’s time for chow! Those treetops can’t be that interesting, can it?”

Crap. That’s the house's owner, isn’t it?

“Get back, human.”

The door swings open.

“Ugh, silly girl-”

Entering through the door is a short-statured reptilian creature, about the same height as you. He’s wearing an old black raincoat with a worn-down tunic and cropped chaps, with a shoddy rope tied around his waist, acting as a sort of makeshift belt. The creature’s barefoot digitigrade claws clack onto the wooden surface and into the room, stopping when he realizes that there are other people there with him. He freezes in place, vibrant blue-black scales standing on end. Up past his scruffy snout sits eyes open wide in shock, his white irises staring up at you in utter disbelief.

“You’re… y-you’re those guys! And you…!” His eyes shift to the emotionless metal mask, glaring right back at him.

The sound of a detracting blade, and the plunging of steel into flesh. Before you can even process what’s happened, the person drops dead to the ground, hitting the wooden boards with a harsh thud. A thick, black liquid pours out of an orifice near his stomach, growing into a sickly pool culminating at the base of his recently deceased body. The pool grows evermore, seeping into the floorboards, painting his scales with a dark black paste.

Hunter stands in the doorway, wiping the blood from his blade on his cloak before retracting it back into his gauntlet.

“It seems we aren’t as safe here as I thought.”

He just… killed him.

“Come, human. It’s best we move quickly.”

Hunter walks through and out the door, back into the fog.

Looking back at the corpse, it’s clear that this was a Dymstrogg. At least, you think it was, but there are a few minor differences. The scales are a bit more robust, with a slight hue of blue woven into the main shade of black. Smoothed out spikes run down their back and spine, a similar pair of smaller spikes set on each side of their snouted head. The biggest difference is a decently sized reptilian tail, also spiked, strewn motionless over the legs.

The longer you look at him, the more the sickness grows in your stomach. You’ve seen Hunter kill several other ones like him, so why does this feel any different?

Why does it feel like you just witnessed the murder of a real person?

The train of thought comes to a screeching halt, sensing a brief blur of movement out of your peripheral. A strange, four-legged creature, about the size of a small dog, had made its way up to a window on the far side of the room, perching itself on the sill. It leaps down to the floor, immediately bounding over to the person’s body. It brings out a paw, reaching out to bat at the person’s head. The animal lets out a long, almost woeful whine as it yips and bats at the lifeless body.

“Uh… hey there... fella.

”

The animal stops, turning its head to meet your gaze as it lies next to the body. It stands back up, recluding into a submissive posture with its tail tucked between its legs.

“Hey, I’m not gonna hurt you. It’s alright.”

They still seem a little anxious, but they understand you aren’t hostile.

You take some time to get a better look at the small critter. They’ve got four legs, all down in a dog-like position. They’re covered in a thick blue fur, with black areas located near the eyes and running down the arms and legs, almost like fitted gloves. Slitted eyes rest on a portly furry snout, cat-like ears perked up in an attentive gesture.

“Was that guy… your owner?” You point over to the body of the person lying there next to them.

It looks down to the person, then gives an affirmative nod.

...Wait, it nodded?

“Can you... understand what I’m saying?”

It nods again, this time a bit more enthusiastically.

Although you’re initially taken by surprise, it occurs to you that this isn't the craziest thing you’ve seen thus far.

“...I’m sorry. My friend, he, uh… yeah. I’m really sorry.”

It looks back at you in understanding, swishing around its willowy tail in a feeling of sadness and grief.

After lying next to the man for a bit, the critter sits up, tilting its nose up to sniff something out in the air. Its nose brings them over to you, sniffing at something in your pocket.

Oh yeah. Those are the glowing mushrooms that you took from the grove. You figured you’d bring some along for the ride, just in case the call of nature arose. You reach down to pull them out, the creature seems mesmerized by them.

“You want these? I mean, they don’t taste very good, but go ahead.”

It snarfs down the shrooms in a single bite, mashing them up in a surprisingly sharp set of fangs. It gulps them down, then looks up to you with a pair of almost impossibly cute puppy-eyes.

“Human! Are you coming along?” Hunter calls to you from somewhere outside.

Shit, this isn’t good. You know full well what’ll happen if he sees this, um, odd-looking fox-dog. Your mind sifts through for a solution, coming to an empty pack hanging on the wall. You rush to grab the sack, setting it open upon the floor.

“Hey! Get in here, quick! My friend’ll kill you if he sees you, trust me!”

The fox-dog is understandably alarmed by your warning, but they quickly abide by running into the bag.

“Y-Yeah, I’m coming! (and don’t make any noise!)”

You run back out of the house, Hunter stands just outside, his back turned to you with crossed arms.

“What were you doing in there?”

Most people don’t know this, but you’re actually quite good at bullshitting.

“I just wanted to make sure that guy was dead, for sure. Just so he, y’know, doesn’t attack us.”

You both start on the cobble path down past the rest of the houses.

“I see. Perhaps you’re beginning to learn the ways of this world.”

Nah, I just know how to lie.

“And that bag you’re carrying?”

Dammit. Looks like you may have jinxed yourself.

“I found some… useful supplies. Supply stuff.”

The bag wiggles for just a moment. You’re almost certain he saw it.

“...Ok. Good for you, I suppose.”

Oh, thank god…

“A-Anyways. We need to keep moving. The journal said something about a-a fort, somewhere. That’s where Susie is, I think.”

“Would that be the fort over yonder?”

Exiting the fog, you’ve come to a cliff housing an incredible vista, overlooking a massive sea located within an even more massive cave. Within the sea are several smaller isles, densely populated with spanning clusters of trees, along with varied types of domed buildings and archaic architecture, some of them with large spikes adorned on top. There are about 6 or 7 of these said isles, with one in the farthest end holding a grand old castle, calmly sat upon an elevated bit of rock. Small objects that look to be boats dot the landscape, many of them clumped up near the islands’ multiple piers. A single, gargantuan cluster of pure-black crystals hangs affixed to the cave’s ceiling, serving as the main source of light for the expanse.

That fort is miles away, easily.

“How… How are we gonna get over there?!”

That’s a genuine question. There aren’t any ways you can see to get down to the sea, and even then you’d have to find and use a boat, of which you can’t see any nearby.

“I’m not sure. There must be a way…”

He continues to walk nearer to the falloff, but something abruptly begins to sink underneath his feet. He pulls himself back, looking down in curiosity.

“What is this?” Hunter uses his foot to kick layers of dust and filth off the ground, revealing a circular metal plate, with centralized rings engraved into the object. The plate sinks underneath his weight, the rings glowing brighter as more pressure is put on.

“Uh, Hunter? I’d be careful with that if I were you.”

As Hunter steps closer to the edge, the ground underway begins to manifest a glowing blue ring, oriented directly under his feet. Another blue ring, this time much larger, also appears above him, a transparent tube running from above the ring across to a distant island. The rings hold several mystic symbols and insignias, some kind of auto-activated magic would be your best guess.

“Ah, I see. This must take us to where we need to go.”

Great, another zipline situation. Nothing ever has to be easy, has it?

_Be strong._

Right... that’s right. Gotta be strong.

You step below the glowing belt of energy, a ring appearing beneath your feet as well. The manifestation is accompanied by a sudden feeling of weightlessness, an unseen force slowly lifting you from the ground.

“Hold on. It might get a bit… turbulent.”

Oh crap. Crap crap crap…

…?

You’ve already landed, a hand planted on the ground in a surprisingly badass manner.

“Hmph. That was quite the dramatic landing, there. I’m impressed.”

“Uh, yeah. It was.”

You’ve noticed things like that happen, before. It’s like time skips past in brief increments, mostly when you’re about to do something that’s either really hard or batshit insane. It’s happened before in your previous adventure through the Dark World, but you haven’t really noticed it until now.

You remember diving in front of Susie, shield held in front to protect her from one of the Spade King’s deadly blows. Of course, it was what you wanted, yes. But you didn’t do that.

  
  
“So, is this the place?”

Hunter looks around him; you’re both in a place similar to the forest, but with slightly fewer trees and general foliage. An old cobblestone path leads up to an important-looking building on the hill just ahead, with glow bug lanterns lighting the way. You’ve landed on another engraved metal plate, just like the one you had already used to get here.

“I don’t think so. This looks different.”

Now that he mentions it, that building definitely isn’t a fort, it looks more like a political building, such as a town hall or court. The architecture looks like it came straight out of ancient Rome, with ornately engraved columns and black marble making the exterior of the building. The hall’s domed roof sports an assortment of elegant outreaching spikes, all of them painted with a bright gold sheen.

“Yeah, I guess we need to find another tunnel.”

“That is the plan. Now if only we knew where…”

Something’s distracted him from his current trail of thought, and it quickly becomes apparent to you the cause. The building’s dome was sliding open, a second tunnel reaching out of the roof and off to the distant fort. Out of the roof, you can see a group of about 4 or 5 people rising up, zooming away across the boiling sea.

Hunter’s already begun sprinting into the building, so you guess you’ll follow.

Before you do that, it’d probably be a good idea to check in on your luggage. You kneel down and open the sack, a cute little head poking through the opening.

“You all good, little guy?”

It’s shaking a bit, but it nods.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. We took one of the magic tunnels.”

It turns around to look back at the arcane plate, then back at you.

...Actually, this looks like a decent place to let them go.

“Hey, you should be safe now. You’re free! I’ll just let you do your thing, I guess.”

As you begin to turn around, the animal starts whining and yelping at you, desperately begging for your attention.

“What, what? ...You don’t want me to leave you here?”

It shakes its head.

“...Why? You’ve got all you need right here. There's trees, grass, all that stuff. You’ll be fine.”

Again, they whine at you, this time with feeling. It seems like they’d rather come along with you then stay here.

“Ok, fine. I’ll let you go with me, I guess.”

It jumps onto you, practically assaulting you with sloppy licks. The force knocks you back slightly, with your back on the ground and the fox-dog pinning you down. It continues to ferociously lick at your face, and while it’s appreciated, you decide you’ve had enough.

“A-Alright, Alright! I get it! Cut that out!”

The critter hurriedly leaps off of you, doing a few hasty joy-spins before slinking back into your knapsack.

“Just please, do not let my friend see you. He’ll go ballistic.”

Getting another confirming nod from the fox-dog, you zip the bag up and set off towards the imposing edifice.

Making your way up the steps and into the structure, the entrance leads directly into a large atrium filled to the brim by all sorts of vibrant flora, with luminescent vines and blue-lit torches running up smooth marble columns and walls. Along those walls are shelves full of rows upon rows of leatherback books, each containing at least several dozen of them. Scattered around the space are sectioned mini-gardens, all individually made with a certain type in mind: some with exclusively flowers, some with vines, some with leafy plants, some with stalks, some with all of the previously mentioned types mixed together. Just next to you is one of those vines, growing across a scaffold arranged in a criss-cross pattern; plump round berries had found their way out of the growth. You decide to take a few, dropping them into your bag for your newly-made friend to munch on.

Hunter’s over by the center of the garden, pacing back and forth on the engraved plate on the ground.

“WHY ISN’T THIS WORKING?! WHAT MORE MUST BE DONE?!”

His booming voice echoes of the dome of the interior, managing to shock you with the sheer volume of the shout. You’ve never seen him this angry before.

“...Hunter?”

He stops in his tracks, shifting his gaze towards you.

“Oh. It’s you.”

“Are you good?”

“...Yes, I believe so.”

Hunter looks back down at the markings on the floor, stomps on them in frustration.

“Human, this tunnel in particular refuses to cooperate.”

He’s right about that. The sigils carved into the ground aren’t reacting at all to his weight.

“I am currently deliberating on potential solutions. In the meantime, take some time to look around. We could be here a while.”

“Ok then. You work on that, I’ll see if I can’t find a solution as well.”

It’s probably some sort of dumb puzzle, and you really can’t be bothered to try and solve it right now.

You take a wandering walk around the atrium, gazing at some of the interesting looking plants growing out of the various sections. The craftsmanship shown in the gardening is fairly impressive, it almost reminds you of your dad’s flower shop, with all of its carnegies, petunias, and all the other flower names he told you that you’ve forgotten. Obviously, this garden is a lot more impressive, not just in the plants themselves but in their presentation. Each section had been carefully designed with the plant’s eventual growth in mind, all culminating into incredible artistic displays of natural beauty. It’s like each individual plant’s got its own distinct personality.

God, you really sound like your dad right now. Now it kinda makes sense why he’s so passionate about that stuff.

Beside you is another bookshelf made into the wall, reaching up to the roof, loaded all the way with books, books, and more books. There’s at least a hundred on this shelf alone, you can’t begin to imagine how many there are in the rest of the building.

...You can’t help but wonder what might be in these. You reach in and pull one of the tightly-packed books out of its resting place, opening up to a random page.

\---

**History of the Dym’urian Peoples**

_Not much is known of the origin of our people, as the first instance of recorded history resides in the d’Stroggalian texts, entailing:_

_(all following quotations have been roughly translated into common tongue, for ease of reading)_

_‘...we were driven from the surface by them(1), forced to reside within these surrogate caves; and so we made our new home here...’_

_Age predictions pit this book’s legacy in the hundreds, but there is no entirely accurate way to discern its true age, namely due to lack of sufficient technology._

_Our people have lived peacefully within the Kaverna for many ages. We expanded throughout the caves, honed our craft, and thrived as a species. The year 56 B.C. was when our capital, Dym’ur, was established. It sits here as the center of our accomplishments, housing all of our finest libraries, agriculture, and architecture. The old castle Dymloch overlooks the capital, located past the scalding sea and upon the Crag of Maw._

_However, a great catastrophe has since been brought upon us, tested our resolve. Not much is known about the events surrounding the great change, but it has resulted in the introduction of an entirely new entity, an empire that has reportedly seized control of the overlands. Studies relating to this new force are ongoing._

_The rapid influx of photon negative energies following the great change has resulted in a baffling phenomena: namely the reversion of all our women back to a primal state._

_We were forced to drive them out from this place, and we have yet to find a single female resilient to this effect since._

_No one knows how or why this horrendous atrocity had occurred, but the working theory speculates that female Dym’urians evolved to be more finely attuned to the dark magicka, as they have a natural proficiency with the conjuring of buster-type manifestations, moreso than the vast majority of men. They relied heavily on the stability of the darkness to maintain their composure, as use of such raw projections are known to take a slow toll on one’s mind._

_1\. (The aforementioned ‘ancient ones’, an entity repeated numerous times in other texts)_

\---

‘Conjuring of buster-type manifestations’? If only you knew what any of that nonsense meant.

You throw the book to the ground, it hits the grass with a soft thud. Fingers trail along the covers of various different leather bindings, landing on a cover that looks fancy enough. You pull it out and open it up, again to a random page.

\---

**Old Dym’urian Mythos Examined**

_A vast multitude of prophetic conjectures have come and gone with the ages, yet there has always been one that seems to prevail throughout the centuries. It speaks of the coming of a single powerful being, a demi-god with the power to bring a true end to our world. The being’s name has long since been lost in translation, but one ominous detail remains prevalent:_

_‘For they will walk through our sacred halls, a trail of darkness unmatched tailing behind them, casting aside our greatest with barbarous cruelty. Unyielding, unwavering, immutable. They are the end, and the end is they.’_

_Some alternate translations include the presence of a “dark tower” and the descent of a “dark angel”. The true meaning of these passages is still heavily disputed._

\---

...That certainly isn’t ominous at all.

“Found anything yet, Human?!”

“Nothing so far!” Well, technically you’ve found things, but they aren’t really useful to the task at hand.

You drop the book and run back to the center, meeting back up with Hunter. Seems like he hasn’t made any progress either.

“So. I’ve concluded that this is an incredible waste of our time. I’m going to go look for another way to the fort. I suggest you come with.”

“Really? Ok, if that’s what you want, I guess.”

Hunter starts walking back to the exit, but you can’t help but think that there’s gotta be a way to solve this thing. The last tunnel you used, it was activated by stepping on it. Why isn’t that working this time?

You give one last glance around the room, eyes landing on something you initially hadn’t noticed. There’s a large marble statue of a noble-looking Dymstrogg, draped in royal clothing and posed in a triumphant stance, a pointed spear held in hand. There’s an inscription engraved into the base of the object.

Se’bastian VI - “The weight of the prince’s actions echo for all of us to bear, rippling waves of darkness crashing over the rocks of time.”

Weight…? Weight! That’s it! The plate functions on weight, not just standing on it.

“HEY! HUNTER!”

He turns around on a dime, rushing back to the center.

“What is it? Did you find something?”

“Listen, I think I figured out how this thing works. We need something really heavy.”

He walks over to the statue, looking it up and down with intrigue.

“Would this suffice?”

“Yeah, that’s more than enough, probably. Do you think you can move that over here?”

“Of course. Give me a moment.”

Hunter walks around to the back of the statue, putting both hands on the base.

There’s no way. That statue’s way too heavy for him to-

The statue scrapes across the ground, marble grinding against granite as the hefty monument slides over the plate. The floor under you begins to sink under the weight of the object, the roof above you slowly sliding open as the ring’s sigils illuminate. The sculpture comes to a stop in the center of the circle, with Hunter leaning against it, seemingly exhausted.

“Huf… Haf… Ah. Haven’t pushed something that heavy in a while.”

You’d like to know how he pushed an object twice his size and weight, but that’s probably a question best saved for later.

“Ok, I think it’s working now.”

The ring does seem to be working now, the tunnel forming above you and stretching into the sky, er, cave.

“Well done, human. See you on the other side.”

…

Ah. It happened again.

Now you’re standing on a grassy plateau, a dense fog obscuring the immediate surroundings. There aren’t any trees that you can make out at the moment, the sides of the plateau drop off into the sea.

“Careful, Human. You don’t want to fall down there.”

He’s not wrong about that. Can’t imagine what it’d be like getting boiled alive, jeez. It almost hurts to think about.

“So, uh… Where are we now?”

The fog is preventing you from seeing nearly anything, let alone any important landmarks. You could be anywhere.

“We’re close, I can feel it. Come on.”

He can ‘feel’ it? Is he just trying to sound cool or something? Who knows.

Your advance brings you to an intricately designed bridge, constructed out of marble, metal, and suspended wires holding it over the sea below. The overpass looks pretty sturdy, whatever it’s built out of must be pretty strong.

“I remember seeing a bridge like this, leading into the fort. This must be it.”

Was there a bridge? There was something like that, you think. You feel like you should remember a detail like that, it wasn’t all that long ago.

Sure enough, the silhouette of a grand fortress seeps into view as you make your way across the bridge, shadowy spikes and domes towering far above the fog. Its size barely wavers as you continue towards it, imposing walls and gothic spires overlooking the broiling sea. The castle itself sits upon a thinly supported bed of rock, just large enough to support the massive structure as it rests dormant on the crag. There’s a naturally formed alcove under the rock, with black stalactites hanging from the top of the formation; it almost looks like a monster’s teeth-baring snout.

“Hail, travelers!”

An unknown voice sounds out from the distance, emanating from somewhere across the bridge. There’s a monster-person standing at the other end, they’re wearing a flat cone-shaped hat, also carrying a staff in their off-hand. The voice itself sounds quite old; deep and forceful yet with a calm and collected undertone.

“You are headed to the fort to see the girl, are you not! It is quite the incredible turn of events, no?"

While you’ve stopped where you are to listen to the person, Hunter hasn’t. He’s reaching behind him, pulling out something from within his cloak.

“...Traveler? I do not recognize you. You look… strange.”

“Hunter, Hunter wait-!”

Hunter brings out his gun, slides a shell into the chamber.

“Hunter! STOP!” You try desperately to stop him, but it’s already too late.

He fires at the man.

You’ve put your hands over your ears, still in a bit of a daze from the sound of the blast.

“...Goddammit, Hunter! Why do you keep killing everyone-”

You look back up to where the man was standing. He’s still alive.

“How rude.”

The man had conjured up a magical wall to protect himself, pellets still lodged in the translucent material. The wall vanishes, the pellets clinking onto the ground one by one.

A similar-looking wall appears in front of you, blocking you off from them.

“I welcome you to these sacred halls with open arms, and you return with nothing but viciousness and hatred.”

Hunter lowers his gun, puts it back behind him.

“Who are you to waltz into our abode like this? To treat me with such… vileness?”

“I don’t care who you are. Get out of my way, or I will kill you.”

Shit, Hunter sounds livid. He doesn’t talk like that normally.

The man steps out of the shadows, revealing himself as another Dymstrogg. He’s got a black thatched cone-hat on top of his head, with a deep purple trim running across the edge. Feathery black pauldrons sit over a navy cloth, wrapped around the chest and neck so as to prioritize breathability and movement over protection. Layered cloth legwear with decorative tassels sways in the growing wind, covering his legs exempting two clawed feet, which are entirely barefoot. On the person’s arms are a set of metal gauntlets, each adorned with a single black crystal in the center. He holds a two-handed spear in his right hand, tipped with another crystal, this time sharpened to a fine point.

“Kill me if you can, traveler. Although, you might find the task harder than you expect.”

Hunter wastes no time, rushing towards them with his blade held close behind. The stranger takes his staff and slices the air in a sweeping motion, shooting out a wave of raw energy across the bridge. It hits Hunter square in the chest, knocking him back multiple feet and nearly destroying his balance. He flails around for a bit, eventually regaining his stance. He starts again towards the stranger, but is almost immediately struck again with the same attack, sending him even farther back across the bridge. Another of the attacks hits him again while he’s off-balance, sending him flying back into the forcefield between you and him, he slams into the wall with enough force to smash through a brick wall.

“Hunter! You okay?”

“Ergh… yes, I’m fine. I’m gonna kill that bastard.”

He picks himself back up and again, letting out a cry of rage and rushing headfirst towards his enemy. The stranger sees this, and once more sends out a flurry of wave attacks, swinging around his staff with an impressive level of speed and grace. The energy waves once again slam into Hunter, sending him flying back into the wall. Hunter’s breathing is shallow, he clutches at his chest and groans in pain.

“Agh… I… what…”

Whatever he’s trying to do, it obviously isn’t working.

“Hunter, listen. You need to try and dodge the attacks. You’re not gonna be able to just power through, he’s too strong.”

“...Dodge? I... don't understand.”

“I dunno, just- just try to slide under them, or something! He's been sending them out pretty high.”

The stranger calls out from the distance. “Turn back, traveler! These halls are not for your kind!”

“Ok. I will try your suggestion."

He gets back up, and again starts towards the stranger, albeit a bit more cautious in his approach. They send out another three-pair of waves in response, Hunter returns by deftly sliding below them, successfully avoiding the barrage.

“I see. You’re beginning to predict my movements. Then how about this?!”

The stranger throws out another triplet of waves, this time with the second one riding along the ground. Hunter ducks under the first one, but gets swept over by the second, falling face-first into the third and getting blasted back. The force sends him bounding and sliding across the ground on his stomach, he shouts out in anger.

“ARGH! Hah... Human, what happened!?” He seems genuinely confused at the sudden change in attack.

“He mixed you up with a ground wave, Hunter. I think he knew you were gonna go under the first one. You gotta react to what he does if you want to get to him.”

“Leave, traveler! You will not win!” The stranger’s taunt echoes from across the bridge.

“...I understand what I must do. Thank you, Human.”

Hunter gets up once more, advancing to the stranger. Another set of waves are thrown out, and he slides under them without trouble. The stranger sends out his mix-up, he ducks under the first, hops over the second, and just barely manages to slide knees-first under the third, the wave skimming off the top of his metal horns.

“Yeah! Let’s go, Hunter!”

He’s now closer to the stranger than he’s ever been, and you feel that the stranger knows this. One more successful dodge, and he’ll be close enough to attack.

“You are persistent, traveler. I will give you that. But this is where your advance ceases!”

The stranger begins his final wave assault, throwing out flurries of energy in all types of formations, some even cutting straight down the middle. Hunter ducks and weaves through the attacks with finesse, failing to get hit by even a single one of them, even managing to slice straight through one with his armblade. He's got his patterns down to a tee now, easily dodging everything he can throw at him. It's almost frightening to watch.

“Grah! Get back!”

The stranger rapidly twirls his spear in a circle, throwing out several rings of condensed energy sent barreling towards his rabid aggressor. In an event of pure athleticism and skill, he dives perfectly through the rings, landing in an adept roll across the ground. He smoothly shifts into an attacking stance, only a few feet from the panicking defender.

“I’ve got you now.”

The stranger thrusts his spear at him in a desperate attempt to deter him, but Hunter effortlessly catches the staff in his hand. He yanks the spear from him and plunges it point-first back into the stranger’s stomach. Black blood gushes from both sides of the wound, the spear stabbing through the chest and out through the stranger’s back.

The wall disappears, and you run over beside Hunter as he watches the person bleed.

“...My… people…”

He chokes out his last few words before collapsing to the ground, the life fading from his eyes as he closes them for the last time.

“Wow. He really gave you a tough time, didn’t he?”

“I couldn’t have beaten him without you, Human. You have a fine strategic mind.”

Pfft, yeah. All you did was tell him to not run headfirst into the attacks.

“...In other words, thank you.”

“Hey. Don’t mention it, friend.”

Within the strange tenderness of the moment, something strange catches your eye. A black, upside-down heart had exited the dead man’s body, slowly rising into the air. The heart crackles with energy, blue streaks of light zipping around the exterior.

“Is that… a soul?” It looks like yours, but it’s different in terms of color and orientation.

Hunter reaches towards the floating heart, and a flash of blue lightning zaps from the heart into his palm, making him pull it back in astoundment. The crackling energy runs up his arm in rings, akin to a Jacob's Ladder. The heart cracks down the middle, shattering into dust in the wind.

“Uh… are you okay?” It’s a little worrying, seeing someone not react at all to getting electrocuted.

“Power… this is… POWER…!”

The voltage begins to accrue on his armblade, building up as he pulls his arm back and releases the energy in a swift slice across the air, sending out a volatile wave of crackling blue energy. The wave smashes into a nearby brick wall, sending dust and bits of stone flying in all directions. The dust clears, revealing a large hole in the side of the fort.

You wish you could describe the awe on your face right now.

“Hmph. I like this power. If only I had something like this sooner…” He gazes at the newly-found energy in his armblade, twisting and turning it around to more closely inspect the flowing energy within.

“Yeah, that sure is nice and all. Why don’t we get Susie?”

“Oh, of course. Carry on.”

You walk over to the recently made hole in the wall, jumping up and climbing through the makeshift entrance.

Now on the other side of the ‘entrance’, you drop down to find yourself right in the middle of a large crowd of monster-people, all gathered around the site of the hole. They’re all staring at you in utter disbelief, probably shocked by the recent destruction of the wall.

Hunter drops down from the hole just behind you, his sudden presence causing the crowd to back off significantly, some in the crowd gasp in surprise. He glares at the gathering, unsure what to make of them.

“All of you. Leave immediately. Don’t make me ask again.”

The crowd quickly disperses, monster-people of all shapes and sizes running off towards the exit down the far end of the hall. Some more groups further down the hall seem to have taken the hint as well, they run to another exit on the sides.

You’re now standing on a fancy carpet in the middle of a grand throne hall, black marble columns flanking on each side and finely-crafted banners hanging from the domed roof. At the end of the hall is a large velvet throne, decorated with precision-cut gemstones and other jewelry. There’s also a group of 5 robed individuals, standing at the throne near the end of the hall.

Also near the throne is a floating rectangular prism of magic, inside the prism stands a familiar-looking girl with pink hair. She’s banging on the encasing wall, shouting something you can’t hear.

“There she is.”

Hunter saunters throughout the hall and up the stairs, coming face-to-face with the 5 monster-men. You follow close behind, sword at the ready in case of a confrontation.

The masked man’s gaze drills a hole into the men. “Didn’t you hear? I told everyone here to leave.”

One of the monster-men steps forward to speak. “O-Our, um, orders a-are to guard the girl by any means necessary, so as to-”

The man’s face is promptly caved in by Hunter’s fist, sending him sprawling onto the floor.

“Any other objections?”

The men look back and forth at each other, whispering and bickering among themselves. You can hear some of what they’re saying:

“Who are they?”

“Where is chief? He hasn’t come back.”

“We should do as they say.”

“What more can we do? There is no choice.”

“We must release her.”

Another one of them speaks, this time out loud.

“Ok. We will release the girl.”

With that said, the floating barrier around Susie begins to dissipate, causing her to drop onto the ground with a soft thud. She scrambles back to her feet, immediately darting behind Hunter.

“Ugh… Fuck. Took ya’ long enough.”

“You alright, Susie?”

“I’ve been better. Thought you guys were dead, ha…ha.” There’s a tinge of faded worry in the fake laughter.

Hunter looks back at the group of cloaked men, keeping them down with his stare alone. “We have what we came for. Where is the exit to this place?”

The same man speaks again. “That depends. Where do you wish to go?”

“Take us to the city.”

The man looks back to his group, then nods in agreement.

“We will send you there. Please wait for a brief moment.”

As the man utters this last statement, he and his group stride over to a vacant space behind the throne, gathering in a vaguely circle-like formation. Slowly but surely, a large blue ring begins to take form in the center of their circle, a black void opening up within.

“Woah. Are they making a portal?” Susie asks out of intrigue.

“I guess so.”

Hunter steps over to the edge of the tunnel.

“Why should we trust that this will take us there?”

One of the men speaks. “Our people are doomed either way. There is little reason to hold ill-will towards you; this was our fate from the very start.”

“You deserved it. All of it.”

He leaps into the tunnel, disappearing into the shadows.

“You ready, Susie?”

She’s been snapped out of some deep thought, gazing at one of the robed monster-men.

“Uh, y-yeah. Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 7. Done. Donezo. Finita. Finished.
> 
> I won't lie when I say that this was the hardest chapter for me to write so far, not only logistically but also creatively. A lot (and I mean a LOT) of stuff got cut, mostly because it ended up being either stupidly long and uninteresting, or way too revealing in regards to the rest of the plot. I condensed the parts I liked the most down into a more cohesive narrative, which hopefully shows in the end product.
> 
> I'm also going to be taking a 3-month hiatus from this fanfic, just because I felt I needed some time to step back and think about where I want to go next. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. The story will continue.
> 
> A massive thanks to everyone for all the support. You're all incredible. You all are the reason I work as hard as I do on this fic.
> 
> Especially you, KingofKrispyness. ;)
> 
> Anyways. I'll see you all in the dark.


End file.
